Jim Beam column:Property taxes here to stay

Published 6:03 am Wednesday, February 4, 2026

A fellow walking alongside me at the Ward 3 Recreation Center indoor track on Power Centre Parkway handed me a letter recently that he said his wife wanted me to read. The letter was written by a man in Florida and the title was “Property Taxes Are Rent.”

Douglas Crowson wrote the letter in response to someone who said “property taxes are right and just.” Obviously, Crowson doesn’t agree.

I wasn’t sure what that lady wanted me to do about that letter, but The Associated Press gave me an answer. It was a story titled, “Some states push to end property taxes for homeowners.”

Louisiana has the 41st lowest property tax in the country. My 2025 parish and city property tax bill was only $789.13, or $65.76 per month. Not much reason there to do away with my property taxes.

The median home value in Louisiana is $208,700, and rocketmortgage.com says the annual tax on that home is $1,146. The owner of a $303,400 home would pay $1,166 annually.

Annual property taxes are high in states like New Jersey ($9,541), Connecticut ($6,575), New Hampshire ($6,505), New York ($6,450), Massachusetts ($5,813), and California ($4,926).

Property taxes of Louisiana’s neighbors are Texas ($4,111), Mississippi ($1,189) and Arkansas ($1,003).

Crowson in his letter said,  “The ‘state’ (aka cities, counties, parishes, states, and federal government) should only raise money by taxing goods and services. This places the power of taxation in the hands of citizens. They would spend what they want for goods and services and supply and demand would dictate how much the ‘state’ collects.”

Crowson said if any landowner is forced to pay any funds to keep their property, then it is not “owned” but is leased. He said failure to pay the yearly lease amount simply gives the government the means to seize your property, convict you of a crime, and use what was your property as it wishes.

“First, the state lies to you by saying you own the land. They allow you to put your name on the deed. But it is not yours,”  Crowson said. “ … Everything we own is paid (no debts of any kind), yet we’re still renters (serfs/slaves) on the land.”

Property taxes are levied by cities, counties, and school districts in every state. Property taxes are an annual, ongoing tax determined by the assessed value of homes or land. Property taxes are also usually tax-deductible on federal tax returns, according to rocketmortgage.com.

The taxes fund services that keep communities running. They help pay for public schools, law enforcement, emergency services, parks, road repairs, sanitation, and more.

The AP said rising property values have inflated tax bills in many states, but ending all homeowner taxes would cost billions or even tens of billions in most states. It is unclear if lawmakers can pull it off without harming schools and local governments that rely on the taxes to provide services.

Manish Bhatt, vice president of state tax policy at the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., group that is generally skeptical of new taxes, said, “We’re very much in this property tax revolt era, which is not unique, it’s not new. We’ve seen these revolts in the past.”

Louisiana Republicans who have complete control of state government aren’t likely to change its low property taxes. They have already lowered income taxes for the wealthy and kept high sales taxes.

For the third year in a row, Louisiana has the highest average combined state and local sales tax rate in the country at 10.11%, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation.

Nola.com said the rate went up 0.55% last year after lawmakers overhauled the state tax system, also eliminating some sales tax exemptions in exchange for tax cuts to personal income and corporate income taxes.

National Republicans who want to end property taxes are echoing what Crowson said in his letter about the taxman being able to  seize a house for nonpayment, which means no one truly owns property.

I agree with Adam Langley, of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Massachusetts nonprofit that studies land use and taxation, who said, “I think the complete elimination of the property tax for homeowners is really going to be very difficult in most states and localities around the country, and undesirable in most places.”

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at jim.beam.press@gmail.com.