Votes regarding property, its purchase, value and taxation highlighted a recent Calcasieu Parish Police Jury meeting.

For starters, police jurors OK’d a first responder property tax break.     

Last year, a Louisiana Constitutional Amendment was voted in by the people that allows local governments to provide a $2,500 property tax exemption to local responders. “The state gives each parish the option to approve,” said Alberto Galan, assistant director to the parish administrator.

For the third year in a row, a representative from Houston’s Phillips 66 office showed up to appeal the Calcasieu Parish Assessor’s property valuation. Every year, the Police Jury has upheld the assessor’s valuation.

“For 2024, our market value for Phillips 66 is $1,820, 518,600,” said Wendy Aguillard, Calcasieu Parish Assessor. That’s approximately $27,100,240 tax dollars.    

The Phillips 66 property tax director responded that a more accurate fair market value would be $497,000,000, approximately $7,236,430 tax dollars.

He offered the following explanation.

“Our refineries can process approximately 264,000 barrels per day. Out of the entire fleet of refineries, this is the least capable of producing clean fuels,” said Chris Cisneros, Phillips 66.

Other reasons he gave jurors that the value was overstated are the growing number of electric vehicles, increased capital cost to make ultra low sulfur diesel, the tight footprint that makes it hard to maneuver to do maintenance and grow and the estimated cost to move the pipe rack to accommodate the new bridge, $100 million.

In general, most property owners want their evaluations to be low for taxation and high for sales or banking purposes, Aguillard said. Additionally, they want to be viewed as good community partners who pay their taxes. A few other businesses, or their tax representatives have made appeals in the past, but rarely send representatives to the Board of Review hearing.

The Calcasieu Parish Tax Assessor said the property value figures come from the business.

“Louisiana is a self-reporting state for business assets. The assessors office sends a form to business owners. It’s based on what they report or what their tax representative reports,” she said.

In the case of land, residential and commercial buildings, value is based on discovery by deputies instead of information provided by the property owner.

Aguillard, who has been in the assessor’s office for 28 years and served as the assessor for 13, said, “We strive to assess all properties fairly for taxpayers and for the parish. We are always willing to work with taxpayers to the best of our ability within the law.

“Although no one likes paying taxes, Louisiana has some of the lowest property tax rates in the United States.”

Insane process

For the second year in a row, Police Juror Chris Landry suggested that the Louisiana delegation change the “insane” appeal process.

“It’s not our decision,” he said. “This is going to go before the state tax commission. It’s the state’s decision.”

Calcasieu Parish Tax Assessor Wendy Aguillard is currently on a committee that is studying the process.

Other business in the Oct. 3 Police Jury meeting included the approval to adopt a resolution to purchase property at the 900 Block of Ryan Street and adopting an ordinance approving the sale of adjudicated property located at 1621 9th St. in Lake Charles.

Galan said in an email that the Ryan Street property has been appraised for $1,292,000,

“The Police Jury is currently leasing the parcel of property for parking across from the 901 Lakeshore Drive building and intends to purchase the property for the purpose of making surface improvements to the parking lot in the future,” Galan said.

The 9th Street property was purchased for $6,500 plus fees. An agenda note stated that the purchaser had maintained the property for more than a year prior to the sale.

Police Juror Tony Guillory questioned the maintenance note and how it related to the transaction.

“Maintaining the property has no bearing on the difference in pricing,” said Wes Crain in an email. Crain is Calcasieu Parish Planning and Zoning director. “The sale amount is based on the appraised value.”

A signed affidavit by the neighboring landowner must be submitted to the Adjudicated Property Office indicating that the property has been maintained for at least one year. Once received, letters are sent to the adjacent property owners asking for any objection to the sale within 15 days of receiving notice. If no objection is received, an appraisal is ordered, paid by the buyer, and the minimum bid is set to two-thirds the appraised value. If objection is received, the property is placed for sale at the adjudicated property auction.

“These steps are abbreviated,” Crain said, “and do not go into complete details of the process.”