Council keeps tax rate, increasing tax yield
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GONZALES — The Ascension Parish Council on Thursday approved an ordinance levying millage rates at the same level as last year on property taxes collected by parish government.
While the millage rate will remain the same, the yield from the ad valorem taxes would increase because property values have risen.
In an interview Thursday, Assessor Rene Mire Michel said 2008 is a reassessment year and she expects about a 4 percent increase in property values parishwide as a result of the reassessment.
“Some may be more and some less,” she said. “There was no increase on the west bank of the parish” as the result of reassessment, she said.
Just as the Parish Council voted to keep the millage the same as last year, Michel said, other governmental entities such as the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office and the School Board are expected to do likewise.
In other business, Registrar of Voters Robert Poche told the council the Secretary of State’s Office had agreed to establish absentee voting at the old Prairieville fire station, and the council approved a motion to fund the necessary improvements to the property to meet the secretary of state’s requirements.
Prior to the council meeting, Finance Committee members told Eddie Crawford, SMG’s manager of the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, they wanted him to present a plan to increase revenue at the facility.
Parish government leases the facility, which has lost money since its construction, from the Lamar-Dixon Foundation.
Crawford said SMG manages 250 facilities worldwide, and only 15 break even. The rest lose money, he said.
Parish President Tommy Martinez noted that RV hookups at Lamar-Dixon bring in about $750,000 a year in the form of newfound revenue, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the continual loss of funds by the facility.
Martinez also introduced a proposal for a public opinion poll he would pay for with executive funds.
The poll would survey 400 residents in unincorporated areas of the parish to determine what they think are the major needs of Ascension and whether they would be willing to pay a half-cent sales tax to support those improvements.
While the millage rate will remain the same, the yield from the ad valorem taxes would increase because property values have risen.
In an interview Thursday, Assessor Rene Mire Michel said 2008 is a reassessment year and she expects about a 4 percent increase in property values parishwide as a result of the reassessment.
“Some may be more and some less,” she said. “There was no increase on the west bank of the parish” as the result of reassessment, she said.
Just as the Parish Council voted to keep the millage the same as last year, Michel said, other governmental entities such as the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office and the School Board are expected to do likewise.
In other business, Registrar of Voters Robert Poche told the council the Secretary of State’s Office had agreed to establish absentee voting at the old Prairieville fire station, and the council approved a motion to fund the necessary improvements to the property to meet the secretary of state’s requirements.
Prior to the council meeting, Finance Committee members told Eddie Crawford, SMG’s manager of the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, they wanted him to present a plan to increase revenue at the facility.
Parish government leases the facility, which has lost money since its construction, from the Lamar-Dixon Foundation.
Crawford said SMG manages 250 facilities worldwide, and only 15 break even. The rest lose money, he said.
Parish President Tommy Martinez noted that RV hookups at Lamar-Dixon bring in about $750,000 a year in the form of newfound revenue, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the continual loss of funds by the facility.
Martinez also introduced a proposal for a public opinion poll he would pay for with executive funds.
The poll would survey 400 residents in unincorporated areas of the parish to determine what they think are the major needs of Ascension and whether they would be willing to pay a half-cent sales tax to support those improvements.
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