Tax assessor says that some plants have stretched their tax-exempt status by 10 years, which could eventually affect businesses, residents
Some St. Charles Parish residents won’t like their property tax bills this year because the parish recently got reassessed by the state in April.
And while residents and local businesses are hit by those increases the hardest, many industries in the area are getting by tax-free.
“Once people get their property tax bill and it’s higher than last year, I get the phone calls,” Clyde “Rock” Gisclair, parish assessor, said. “Everyone is asking ‘Mr. Rock, why are my taxes so high?”
Gisclair says that he can’t control the amount residents pay on their property taxes.
“Over the 20 years I’ve been in office, I’ve sat down with various parish presidents and explained to them about the millage rates and industry moving into our parish and not paying their fair share of taxes,” he said. “So far, it’s fallen on deaf ears. They leave my office and nothing changes.”
Gisclair says the parish officials need to come together and work as a team. Parish President V.J. St. Pierre agrees.
“I plan to meet with Mr. Gisclair and find out what we can do about the rising property taxes,” St. Pierre said. “It’s a problem that residents talked to me about during my campaign.”
St. Pierre says he is interested in finding out more about the industry’s exemptions and wants Gisclair to fill him in.
“We want to know what Mr. Gisclair has to say about the industry’s exemptions,” he said. “I’m new to the situation, but I’m looking forward to meeting with and working with Mr. Gisclair to address the millage and tax exemptions for industry.”
St. Pierre says that the tax-exempt status is used as an incentive to encourage industries to move into the parish.
“We’ve got to do something about these exemptions given to these plants,” Gisclair said. “They are supposed to be tax-exempt for 10 years, but some of them have been for 20 years.”
Gisclair says when they finally get added to the roll, they’re not paying nearly the amount they’re supposed to pay.
It’s a battle he’s continued to fight over the years and it doesn’t seem to get any better with each assessment.
“We need to get new legislation in place to help us with this problem,” he said. “We need to work with our parish and government officials to make sure everyone is paying their fair share of taxes and the burden of the responsibility doesn’t fall on the businesses and residential property owners in the parish.”
The St. Charles Parish 2007 assessment is complete and so far early totals indicate that there’s a $35 million surplus available for the taxing districts.
These taxing districts, like the sheriff’s office, the district attorney’s office and the school board, can keep their share of this additional money or not take it.
Gisclair says if they don’t keep the additional money, the millage will stay the same and property taxes won’t go up, at least for now.
“It’s hard to tell them not to keep the surplus money due to them,” he said. “Gas prices are so expensive, and here our office health insurance for the employees has almost doubled, so there’s no way to tell if the taxing districts need the additional money or not.”
Gisclair says since he’s been an elected official, he’s never seen all the taxing districts agree to roll back the millage and not keep the additional money.
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