<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Can you please clarify the significance of the bold-print square ads run in the</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">American Press</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">regarding increased tax assessment rates?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Certainly.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The state constitution requires tax assessors to reappraise property at least once every four years.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">After reassessments, taxing districts must adjust their millage rates either up or down so that the amount of revenue they collect from property owners remains unchanged from the previous year.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If millage rates fall because of a rise in property values, taxing districts may roll their rates forward — either back up to the previous level or to one between it and the adjusted rate.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But that increase can only happen if two-thirds of their board members agree to it, and that vote must be done in a properly advertised public hearing.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Hence the notices, which must be published twice at least 30 days before the hearing and must include the hearing time, date and place and the subject to be covered.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Such public notice shall be published in the official journal of the taxing authority, and another newspaper with a larger circulation within the taxing authority … if there is one,” reads Section 23 of Louisiana Constitution Article VII.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Other requirements, according to a millage rate guide compiled by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office:</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">“A public hearing is required for the roll forward AND a public meeting is required to adopt the millage.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">“Public hearings will be held in accordance with the open meetings law.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">“Publication must be done no later than July 15.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">The notice must contain a statement that says the taxing authority plans to discuss “levying additional or increased millage rates without further voter approval.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">Notices must appear “in a prominent section of the newspapers” and can’t be published in sections set aside for classified ads or public notices.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">Notices must appear in boldface type inside boldly outlined boxes that measure at least 2 by 4 inches.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">“Failure to timely publish renders the millage null, void and of no effect.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">“Tax recipient body shall issue a press release to newspapers with substantial distribution within the parish of the tax recipient’s jurisdiction AND to area broadcast media.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">In conjunction with the first newspaper publication, the taxing authority must post the notice on its website, if it has one. And the notice must remain online until the authority acts on its tax proposal.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyListing">The notices must include “an estimate of the amount of tax revenues to be collected in the next tax year from the increased millage as compared to the amount of tax revenue for the current year” and “the amount of increase in taxes attributable to the millage increase.”</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.latax.state.la.us/Menu_FAQ/FAQ.aspx; www.lla.la.gov/assessorsMillages.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>