Abita Springs rolls back millage

By Suzanne Le Breton
The St. Tammany News
Published on Friday, October 23, 2009 9:11 AM CDT

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The town of Abita Springs will roll back one mill of property tax this year and still have dedicated funds to go toward street lighting and park maintenance.

By law a municipality cannot collect more property tax then it needs to pay off the bonded indebtness it has.

The town of Abita Springs collects 7.86 mills for operation cost and another 9 mills, which were dedicated to street improvements.

The town currently only needs five of those mills to make the necessary payments to on its bonds.

In the past the town has asked the residents to use the extra mills not needed to pay off existing bonds to pay for street improvements.

However, this year, Mayor Louis Fitzmorris said the town is bringing in more sales tax revenue thanks to the revenue sharing agreement it has with the parish and new businesses moving into the town, and therefore does not need the additional mills to pay from street repairs and paving.

Saturday, voters approved a proposition allowing the town to use two of the unneeded mills for improvements to and maintenance of the park and trailhead and one mill to help defray the cost of paying for street lighting.

This leaves one mill unaccounted for, and the Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday night to roll that millage back.

Fitzmorris said he hopes rolling this mill back will make up for some of the increases in property values many residents have experienced.

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