Don’t raise homestead exemption

I respectfully disagree with Iberia Parish Tax Assessor Rickey Huval Sr. over his proposal to raise the homestead exemption in Louisiana, as expressed in a guest editorial in Thursday’s paper.

There’s no doubt many people want it. Heck who doesn’t want to pay less taxes?

But the “average” homeowner in Iberia Parish is already served by the existing $75,000 exemption.

Huval says there are 20,534 residential properties in Iberia Parish eligible for homestead exemption. Of that number, 12,139 are valued at $75,000 or less.

That means way more than half, more than 59 percent of personal residences in this parish are not paying any property tax.

Louisiana’s $75,000 homestead exemption is said to be one of the highest in the country. Across the state more than 50 percent of homeowners reportedly pay no property tax. There are already programs to protect senior citizens from property tax increases associated with rising home values.

Raising the homestead exemption doesn’t reduce taxes. It would simply shift the burden, requiring more tax payments primarily from business.

Louisiana already has a reputation as being an unattractive place to do business. Do we really want to make it harder for existing businesses to operate as well as harder to get new businesses to locate here?

Consider as well how LABI says under current business law, businesses pay property tax at a higher rate, 15 percent compared to the 10 percent homeowner’s rate. Businesses pay a higher rate and get no exemption on the first $75,000 in value, so would clearly seem to be sharing their fair share of the property tax load.

Also consider who is likely to be the biggest consumer of tax provided services. Businesses don’t send kids to schools, but families do. There are a lot more residences for police and fire departments to patrol than businesses, lots more other services to individuals than businesses.

Shifting more property tax burden by raising the homestead exemption would also mean more expense for those who rent. Those who have rental properties — apartments, houses, places for mobile homes — would have to raise the rents they charge to cover their higher property taxes, making things harder for those who already can’t afford to own their own home.

If property taxes are too high, let’s go after government spending that continues to rise and demand more taxes.

But simply shifting the burden of property tax from a minority of homeowners onto the backs of even fewer, and onto business, is simply unfair and bad for the businesses that fuel our economy and pay the salaries that allow us to own homes in the first place.

As good as the idea might sound at first, we should not raise the homestead exemption.