Parish facing shortfall due to tax delay

The St. Tammany Parish Council found out Thursday night the delay in sending out property tax bills is causing financial problems for some of the parish’s fire districts.

Four fire districts each submitted a resolution asking the council to approve bridge loans from the State Bond Commission in order for them to make payroll.

Fire District 4 is seeking $500,000, Fire District 9 wants $60,000, Fire District 2 is asking for a $450,000 loan and Fire District 11 needs $100,000.

The only fire district represented Thursday was District 4. Its Chief Financial Officer Wayne Thompson said even though it has $2.2 million in reserve, the district will not be able to meet payroll after February.

The delay was due to several factors. First there were 15,000 appeals to the Assessors Office’s property assessment. That took time, and some were appealed before the Parish Council. Everything had to be notarized and that also took time. Assessor Patricia Schwarz-Core also said Hurricanes Gustav and Ike delayed the final re-assessment of property.

The parish’s bond counsel, Grant Schlueter explained when the State Tax Commission certified St. Tammany’s 2008 property tax rolls Wednesday and paved the way for 125,000 bills to be mailed out, it did so weeks behind schedule. While rolls are normally certified in November and property tax bills are sent out in December for payment on Dec. 31 or mid January, this year’s bills won’t be mailed out until February, three weeks later than normal. The result: weeks of delayed income for taxing bodies and hundreds of frustrated homeowners now unable to write their taxes off in time to file 2008 federal income tax returns. He said Sheriff Jack Strain whose office sends out the bills, is aware of the problem.

According to Sheriff Office spokesman Capt. George Bonnett, the Sheriff has already secured an $8 million bridge loan to fund general operations.

However, Councilman Reid Falconer expressed frustration over the amounts of the loans and the lack of information given to the council.

“$500,000 is an awful lot of money. I’m just frustrated about this,” Falconer said.

Schlueter assured the council that neither they nor the parish are liable for the loans, and that by federal law, the loans cannot exceed the monthly deficit of the fire district, and a certificate showing that deficit has to be provided before the loan is approved.

“The funds go strictly to fund the payroll and can’t be used as capital funds,” Schlueter said.

Still, the council was leery of voting to approve the resolutions.

Council Chairman Jerry Binder said no other parish in the state is facing the problem, and the extensions given to the St. Tammany Assessor’s Office are wasting time and taxpayers’ money.

“All of us need to be informed of what is going on. We are not running a rubber stamp process here,” Binder said.

Other council members wanted to see the districts’ financial statements before making a decision.

“It’s in the council’s best interest to get the income statements from these fire districts,” said Councilman Chris Canulette.

The council voted unanimously to table all four resolutions until its Feb. 5 meeting. At that time, they will consider the requests only if the fire districts are all represented and present their financial statements.

That could cause a time problem for the fire districts, according to Schlueter. The parish council must first approve it then the state Bond Commission must approve it again. But the Bond Commission only meets once a month and requires such requests be submitted 30 days in advance.

In other business, the parish council:

• Re-elected Binder to be Council Chairman for 2009, and re-elected Marty Gould as Vice-Council Chair.

• Appointed Lawrence M. Rase to a two-year term on the Causeway Commission, replacing Jack Salter, whose term had expired.