Special assessment available for certain residents
Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Is there any property tax relief for Calcasieu citizens becoming seniors?
Yes.
A provision in the state constitution permits the freezing of property assessments for people age 65 or older; those with Defense Department service-connected disability ratings of 50 percent; spouses of service members killed or missing in action; and certain people with permanent, total disabilities.
Under the provision, approved by state voters in 1998, applicants for the freeze — known as the special assessment level — must have an “adjusted gross income, as reported in the federal tax return for the year prior to the application for the special assessment” that falls below a certain, inflation-adjusted amount.
The amount for the 2016 tax year is $71,491.
Among the criteria for maintaining the freeze, as listed in Section 18 of Louisiana Constitution Article 7:
“The owner who is sixty-five years of age or older, or that owner’s surviving spouse who is fifty-five years of age or older or who has minor children, remains the owner of the property.”
“The owner who has a service-connected disability of fifty percent or more, or that owner’s surviving spouse who is forty-five years of age or older or who has minor children, remains the owner of the property.”
“The spouse of the owner who is killed in action remains the owner of the property.”
“The value of the property does not increase more than twenty-five percent because of construction or reconstruction.”
For more information, call the Calcasieu Parish Tax Assessor’s Office at 721-3000.
Consulting firm paid $1,250 a month
I saw Mark McMurry’s name in the paper the other day, and I was wondering how much he is being paid as a consultant to the visitors bureau?
Also, why does the visitors bureau need a consultant anyway?
The Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau pays McMurry Leadership & Management $1,250 a month for consulting services, said Shelley Johnson, visitors bureau executive director.
“Those consulting services include, but are not limited to, advice and consultation on matters of pubic finance, public policy, economic development, and general management and issues relating to improving the interaction of the CVB with the numerous local government entities in Southwest Louisiana,” Johnson wrote in an email.
“The bureau draws frequently upon the extensive professional background and expertise of Mark McMurry, owner of ML&M, in each of those areas to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the bureaus’s efforts to provide quality development and management of our area’s growing tourism industry.”
McMurry has served on the boards of several area organizations and was parish administrator in Calcasieu Parish for more than 20 years.
