There’s good news, bad news and no news for residents across the parish now that most of the property assessments are in and cities have made decisions concerning millage rates.

Tuesday night, the Slidell City Council postponed voting on whether or not to roll property tax millage forward or back until further study is done on the figures sent to the city by St. Tammany Assessor Patricia Schwartz-Core.

Council President Ray Canada said the council received the proposals and projections from the assessor’s office at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. “We’ve had no time to analyze the numbers and its impact on the city,” Canada said.

If the council decides to roll the millage forward to the maximum 30.85, it would increase the net revenue for the city by 10.6 percent. If the decision is to roll back the millage to 27.03 mills, net revenue for Slidell would decrease by 3.1 percent.

This is what concerns both Mayor Ben Morris and Finance Director Sharon Howes.

“Rolling back would put Slidell below pre-Katrina conditions,” Howes said. She recommended the millage be rolled forward but cautioned more analysis needs to be done.

“We have a lot of factors to consider,” Howes said.

One of those factors are Slidell’s residents, according to Morris. Even though he admits that a roll back would be good for the taxpayer, it would mean revenue of $4.9 million as compared to collected net revenue of $5.2 million in 2005.

“Everybody is taking a hit in today’s economy,” Morris said. “We have to come up with a solution that will protect both the city and the residents.”

Morris said the numbers from the assessor’s office are not complete, because of the large number of appeals, plus there are some people who just won’t pay their taxes.

Howes said that after an analysis of the figures, a special meeting of the council should be called before the end of the year to make the final decision.

“We should not decide tonight,” she told the council.

They agreed and voted 7-0 to postpone any action until Howes and the council had time to look over the numbers. On the other hand, Mandeville residents won’t be as intimidated by the numbers on their property tax bill this December.

The Mandeville City Council unanimously voted to roll back the millage rate from 17.29 mills to 16.07 mills. That means if you own a home worth $200,000, at the new rate you will be saving about $244, City Finance Director Milton Stiebing said.

Mandeville’s millage breaks down into four sections. Section one, rolled back from 7.81 mills to 7.36 mills, applies to general maintenance and operations of the city. Section two, rolled from 5.39 mills to 5.08 mills and section three, rolled from 3.59 mills to 3.38 mills, generate funds for operating and maintaining the Mandeville Police Department. Section four, rolled from .50 mills to .25 mills, applies to bonds.

After months of discussions and waiting for official assessments, the Covington City Council voted Tuesday night to roll some taxes back and some taxes forward, resulting in a net millage rate of 23.04, a reduction from last year’s millage rate of 24.27.

This would result in a raise of individual property taxes based on the amount of an individual’s assessment. For example, a house assessed at $150,000 last year after the homeowner’s exemption paid about $36 in city taxes. If that house is now assessed at $200,000 after the homestead exemption, the rollback will cause the homeowner to pay $46.08. This applies to the city taxes in the city limits of Covington only.

The first millage ordinance rolled back all millages to the amount needed to equal the dollar amount collected last year. The vote was 7-0 in favor of the rollback, which accepted the assessment figures from the St. Tammany Parish Assessor’s Office assessing properties in the city at $95 million, up from $88 million last year.

Property assessment figures do not include government buildings such as the Justice Center, hospitals, schools or School Board properties and churches.

Some Abita Springs residents’ pocketbooks will take another hit, as the town opted Tuesday night not to rollback its millages as recommended by the parish tax assessor’s office.

The town collects two millages, 7.86 mills for general operations and 9 mills for the repayment of bonds. Based on preliminary property tax figures, the assessor’s office recommended the town roll back its general operation millage to 6.04 mills. The town is required to roll back bond millages so as not to exceed its bond payments.

However, Mayor Louis Fitzmorris said he feels the property tax figures, given to the town are not reliable due to the large number of appeals. He said the board used the numbers the assessor gave them four years ago and made a decision to rollback the millage, and when the actual figures came in they were 10 percent less then anticipated. The board had counted on that money to pave gravel roads and when the town did not collect as much property taxes as was expected some roads had to go unpaved.

Fitzmorris said he does not want to make the same mistake again. He plans to ask voters to approve the sale of more bonds for street repairs and he will use the extra money collected from the millages to pay for that. He said with all of the appeals this go around, he expects the actual numbers to be as much as 40 percent less than the estimate.

Madisonville officials said they’re still waiting on assessment numbers but Mayor Peter Gitz said they will likely roll back the millage rate. For the time being, Pearl River’s 10 mills will stay the same, town officials said. Folsom Mayor Marshell Brumfield said his town doesn’t have property tax millages.

Reporter Erik Sanzenbach, Debbie Glover, Suzanne Le Breton and Chad Ruiz contributed to this story.