Tax rate cut 27 percent

Expect lots more from the bivalve on this.

Thanks go to the assessors and the city council. The assessors, for finally beginning to make the assessed value closer to the actual value of the property, thus pissing off the NOLA elite and putting more of the tax burden on the rich; and the city council for having the cojones to roll back the millage where it should be, so that most people will not get soaked on their property taxes.

No thanks to Ray Nagin. For anything. I've never advocated suicide, but hey man, haven't you felt depressed lately, See-Ray? There is a way out, you know...

Comments

[Kelly]

After reading the article it looks like everything worked out. Most people won't see a sharp tax increase AND the city still gets more money. Perfect.

[ED]

Are you saying that you guys in New Orleans pay just $2,300.00 on a $250,000 house? This may explain why you guys have no decent school system, law enforcement and judicial system and why Louisiana ranks last in so many areas pertaining to quality of life.

I have been a proponent of rebuilding Southeast La and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi after the devastation left by Katrina and Rita but I find it offensive that your tax rates border on absurdity.

You state “The assessors, for finally beginning to make the assessed value closer to the actual value of the property, thus pissing off the NOLA elite and putting more of the tax burden on the rich.

Do you have any understanding why major corporations leave Louisiana or find Louisiana unfriendly and unacceptable for both their corporate structure and their employees and therefore, stay clear of you?

The devastation that was brought upon New Orleans was obviously the fault of a federal agency but the substandard poverty ridden environment that you lived in prior to these storms will remain if these are the taxes your citizens pay. We all have a responsibility in taking care of each other but we also have a responsibility in taking care of ourselves.

[Huck]

ED - I find it incredibly ironic that you, who apparently pretend to some kind of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps philosophy, are lambasting New Orleans for actually having low property taxes by other standards. I can't tell if you are a fiscal conservative, a tax-and-spend liberal, or just an anti-New Orleans blowhard. My inclination is to think primarily the third option, with some freakish combination of the other two options that give you some absurd cover for your antipathy towards New Orleans.

Really, help me to understand. Are you suggesting that taxing homeowners in New Orleans into oblivion is a better recipe for "taking care of ourselves" than in finally adjusting a property tax situation that is much more equitable, that will ultimately improve city finances through increased tax collection, that will encourage investors and entrepreneurs and corporate entities and their employees to move to a city that now has a more transparent and de-cronyized property tax system, that finally will make a good number of million dollar homes pay more than just a hundred dollars in property taxes, and that will undoubdtedly make it much more possible for we New Orleaneans, especially of the middle class variety, to take care of ourselves?

What is the property tax rate on homes where you you live? Do you have to also pay upwards of 9% sales tax on consumer goods and services, too? I'm just trying to get a sense of the roots of your outrage and offended sensibility, because, frankly, your outrage seems strangely misplaced and incoherent.

[ED]

Huck, Thanks for making my point. You take money from the poor and elderly by taxing their meds and food? You think that is your future tax base? No matter what your income is, you will pay 9% sales tax on a car? Now how stupid and regressive is that?

If anything, your tax system actually appears to be conservative Republican.

A state income tax that goes how high? Just 7 or 8%?

Please show me an example where your system has not only worked, but has brought business and industry to Louisiana.

Prior to Katrina:

Where was your school system ranked?

What was your rate of poverty?

How good were your city services?

How was your crime rate?

Why does Louisiana lose so many of their young to other states?

Why do you believe that everybody else is doing it wrong when you guys brought up the rear in virtually every category of quality of life prior to Katrina?

I not only want New Orleans rebuilt, I have donated both time and money for the effort. Labeling me whatever you want, that will not change your future.

[Huck]

Ed - I'm not saying I think the 9% sales tax is a good thing at all. I'm simply saying it is what we are faced with. You seem to be arguing that we should increase our property taxes as if that added tax burden will make things better for us. Yet you don't propose how doing so is in any way progressive given the other financial burdens we're facing. I'll tell you as a middle class homeowner, if I had to pay any more in property taxes, when coupled with the sales taxes, outrageous insurance rates, and income taxes, I'd have to move my family out of the City. My single biggest tax burden is property taxes. Raising that burden on me without proposing other forms of fiscal relief is not helpful, all good intentions to the contrary.

I acknowledge and lament all the problems that this state has faced, and some of which you mention; but I'll tell you outright that increasing property taxes is not the solution. That doesn't help us resolve the endemic corruption that plagues our state. If businesses and individuals are reluctant to move to Louisiana with these property tax rates that you think are abysmally low, do you think that raising such taxes would change that pattern, especially if raising such taxes doesn't improve educational quality or the functional efficiency of City services that are hampered by structural and attitudinal problems that no amount of money can solve on its own. The only thing that your apparent solution would do is drive more people (and homeowners at that) out of New Orleans. One might think of lots of progressive solutions to New Orleans' problems, but I'm telling you that raising property tax rates is not one of them, especially not now.

[ED]

Huck, you live there so no sweat off my back, just hate sinking money into certain economic failure for you guys. If you think everybody else is wrong and Louisiana is right, I am sure you can convince the rest of the country what they are missing out on. Huck, what are we missing out on?

Look, I was just browsing by when I happened upon this blog and saw those tax rates. I had to reread the post because I thought I was missing something. I had no idea. You live there, I suppose you find the conditions, sans Katrina, OK. If you see no problem with the working poor paying sales tax on meds and food, I guess I just understand thinking along those lines.

Funny thing, I see where this blog has a recent post where they Japanese Consulate is leaving New Orleans for some fairly high property taxes in fast growing Nashville. The blogger appears to be crying foul. Well, what do you all expect? Their employees will find a wonderful environment in which to raise their families and some great public school systems.

Look back at your history and see what businesses have moved in and what business have abandoned New orleans. Then revisit your antiquated tax system that without conscience, burdens your working poor equally as your middle class at your clothing stores and supermarkets.

When sales taxes and income taxes are the major source of income to support a community anywhere in this country, you will without exception the same failures that have plagued New Orleans over the last 40 years.

[D-BB]

Ed, fuck you. I bet you cheat like shit on your income tax and probably have all sort of tax shelters.

As for the Japs, fuck them. let them put on cowboy hats and boots and shit and go Ahhhh soooo heeeeeeee hawwwwww. I can hear them now the little sneaks. Like I give a shit.

We got poverty because people work hard and get tired and then stop working. Sort of liike the Saints fucking coaching staff.

Where are you from ED because you act like you are high and mighty? I hate that. I'd like to drive over to where you live and choke the shit out of you. (You ain't big and strong, are you ED?)

Never mind, I'm too broke to buy fucking gasoline anyway.

[ashley]

D-BB, would you like me to introduce you to ED? I have the IP address of each of you.

[D-BB]

Please. I would greatly appreciate it.