Bossier tax hike looms funding anti-family agenda

Bossier Parish property owner tax hikes were led off by Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington, and waiting in the wings are Bossier Parish and the Port of Caddo-Bossier. But most consequentially of all, now stepping to the plate later this week is the Bossier Parish School District, ready to fuel an anti-family agenda by taking more from families.

Quadrennial property tax reassessments occur this year, and according to the Louisiana Constitution for continuous owners of unimproved property through the previous assessment the taxes derived from the aggregate value of their property parish-wide by default cannot change, although for some individuals their property values may rise and for others it may fall. This means the millage rates levied must change, going lower if in the aggregate values for these owners rose and going higher if these fell. (This doesn’t apply to new owners from the last assessment or if improvements were made to the property.)

However, a taxing entity may choose to “roll forward” millage rates to maintain their present level by a two-thirds or better vote for a plenary governing authority, increasing taxes on every property owner except those whose assessments for whatever reason in percentage terms decreased more than the percentage increase possible in the rate when rolled forward. Legally, an entity must hold a hearing prior to a meeting to do that, and the Bossier Parish School Board has scheduled that for Sep. 19.

While other parish-wide entities have like Whittington or seem likely to by virtue of their calling a hearing like the Port and parish, because they have authorized significantly smaller millages than the school district, the Board conceivably could hike property taxes by an amount more than those three combined. At nearly $4.3 million, this would bring the total estimated ad valorem haul for this year – yes, it will hit property owners this year – to $91.7 million,

That represents a huge leap if maintaining the existing 64.43 mills – one of the highest in the state and well above the state average of local education agencies – from the $73-74 million range for the fiscal year 2023 reported totals and the budgeted totals for FY 2024, or about 25 percent. Most will come from higher valuations, but about a quarter of it from maintained rates if set at the maximum.

Grabbing more from taxpayers come from the fact that the BPSD continues to run an operating deficit. FY 2023 saw about $26 million more spent than collected, driving the net negative position of the district to $571 million. The reasons for that are decades of underfunding pensions and a pay-as-you-go post- employment benefits system that underestimated utilization to create a gaping $886 million existing liability. The 2024 budget sees more of the same, even draining almost to zero reserves of sales tax revenue, the other major local funding source of around $64 million coming from a 1.5 percent levy, in order to prop up the general fund so that it registers just a small deficit.

The high-tax BPSD has a recent history of turning to tax increases in an attempt to bail out the consequences of its bad decision-making – witness a few years ago trying to hike property taxes to a level far higher than any other in the state but turned back decisively by voters at the ballot box – but other recent actions don’t inspire confidence that it manages finances in the best interests of citizens. For example, billboards touting the district sprang up around the parish not long before the start of the academic year, at a cost not discernable from the budget.

Why? To discourage families from sending children to the parish’s only private school, or to the few in Caddo Parish? Or from enrolling in the state’s virtual charter school? Or from being homeschooled (as of last year, only 21 Bossier students had been approved for this)?

Advertising that you’re doing your constitutional duty of providing education isn’t necessary, if you’re doing your job well. Quality education sells itself without the necessity of reminders exhorting your existence at taxpayer expense. (Or maybe it’s a distraction from the fact that the BPSD produced just a single National Merit Scholar semifinalist for this year; back in the good old days, my little old rural high school produced two for my senior year).

But it’s the anti-family direction accelerating under the leadership of new superintendent Jason Rowland that raises the most questions about whether the BPSB can be trusted with taking more of what property owners earn. In the past year, including some time prior to his assuming the top job, Rowland has solidified plans to open one or more school clinics that can cut parents out from making health care decisions for their children, told parents they walk in the footsteps of racial segregationists if they support increased school choice (which the state passed into law anyway), and spearheaded an effort to weaken standards statewide. His administration also publicly decried enabling the (see above) few parish families homeschooling their children to have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities as new state law now guarantees.

This agenda no doubt a majority of parish families doesn’t support, yet the BPSB backed all of these moves, even passing unanimously a resolution condemning the increased school choice effort despite the fact on a per student basis district finances likely would be better off. (Meanwhile, in Caddo, half of its board had the good sense to oppose a similar resolution, which thereupon failed.) These actions convey the sense that the BPSB cares more about the agenda of adults – raking in as much money as possible, looking out for its employees first, getting reelected – than in the desires of families and children for quality education first by whatever means best accomplishes that.

This lack of accountability puts the BPSB into a position to take more from the people without regret. Bossierites should ask questions about the decisions made that reflect this detachment, whether those justifies taking more money, and whether dumping the anti-family agenda could produce cost savings that negate the temptation to raise taxes. But the way things are going, such entreaties will be ignored and the BPSB will get the tax increase, if smaller, that voters once denied it.