In light of what happened this spring and what’s going on in other states, it’s not too soon to talk about Louisiana’s property tax amendments placed in front of voters in fall elections.
Four came as a consequence of the last regular session. Act 274 would add to the homestead exemption for the special assessment level as applied to owners 65 and older up to $30,000, Act 272 would put an exemption in place for rehabilitation of blighted properties, and Act 39 would transfer the special exemption for surviving spouses of veterans one time. These would decrease non-municipal (and including New Orleans) local governments’ property revenues. Potentially raising it, however, is Act 273 which removes a quirk in adjusting millage rates that would allow them to increase within the four-year assessment period after a decrease, so long as the maximum authorized rate isn’t exceeded.
But perhaps the greatest impact would come from Act 220 of 2025, which bumps up the income eligibility level for special assessments (mostly owners 65 and older which freezes their aggregate taxes paid) from $100,000 to $150,000 (which in the case of the Act 274 amendment would add even more leakage). Given the large numbers of unknown such as qualifiers, there is not an estimate of the total cost to local governments, other than it’s assuredly fewer tax dollars rolling in.
Similar moves will appear on several other states’ ballots this year, although some would have far larger consequences, and perhaps with good reason. A Florida item would raise its homestead exemption in an environment where in the past dozen years total property tax collection locally have risen over 2.5 times.
With the exception of the millage raise possibility, the recent run of play in Louisiana favors passage of these. In spring elections, of the 81 local propositions that dealt with new or renewed taxes, 45 failed, demonstrating a willingness to extend more breaks and by implication depriving local governments of revenue.
To date, no public alarm has been raised by local governments that would be affected by passage of the four that would cut taxes. They may make public complaints in the future. About nine percent of homeowners, and a fifth of all homestead owners, fallunder the special assessment, so the amount forgone by passage, especially in high-tax parishes, could be significant.
No doubt that, as echoed in complaints from Florida, property taxes have become a huge windfall for local governments. From 2005 to 2025, in Louisiana their collection increased from around $28 million to $79 million, 2.5 times the rate of price inflation over that period. Whether carving out greater exceptions instead of wholesale reform would solve for excessive local government growth from this source perhaps is the better question about whether these should pass.
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