Avoyelles Police Jury upholds assessor's position on property tax appeals

Sitting as a “board of review” on property tax appeals, the Avoyelles Police Jury upheld Assessor Heath Pastor’s assessments for the owner of Richardson Place housing development and for Aaron’s rental company, both in Marksville.

Pastor said the developer of Richardson Place disputes the assessment. There are 52 single family homes in the development. The parish receives $26,000 a year in property taxes from the owner, based on an assessed value of $2.5 million. The development company says the value should be $682,000 and the annual tax bill should be $6,000.

Pastor said developers of subsidized housing areas have filed challenges in court -- and won -- on similar tax disputes. However, he said an Orleans Parish court recently sided with the assessor in such a case.

Pastor said the challenge stems from the homes being federally subsidized. He said if Richardson Place was a residential development that did not have subsidized housing, there would be no challenge to the assessment. The parish’s position is to treat the development just it would a non-subsidized housing development. The rationale is that the rent paid to the owner by the occupant does not change the value of the property.

Jurors said they would support Pastor’s position and take the case to court if necessary.

The issue in Aaron’s challenge is on whether the company should pay property taxes on furnishings it has rented to private individuals.

Pastor said state law exempts a private individual’s furniture in his own residence from being considered property, for purposes of property tax assessment. However, the furnishings in question are still owned by Aaron’s, even though located in a private residence.

Aaron’s said it agrees that furniture in its store is subject to property tax, but believes the furniture it has rented out is not.

Aaron’s would pay $6,257 in property tax under Pastor’s assessment and $1,838 under the formula proposed by the company.

The jury accepted Pastor’s position on that appeal as well.

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