Pointe Coupee board votes to change millage

NEW ROADS — The Pointe Coupee Parish School Board has unanimously elected to roll forward the school district’s millage rates for the 2012 tax year.

Property owners had been paying the school district’s regular tax of 4.46 mills and the parishwide school tax of 11.75 mills. The board’s vote Thursday night changed those rates to 4.54 and 11.96 mills, respectively, for the 2012 tax year.

The roll forward is expected to generate approximately $500,000 in additional revenues during the year, Chief Financial Officer Stephen Langlois said prior to the public hearing on the matter.

Langlois advised board members during the hearing that they had the option of adjusting millage rates this year because property values in Pointe Coupee had increased, according to findings in the latest assessment issued by parish Assessor’s Office.

The board joined several other governing bodies in the parish that either have or plan to roll millage rates forward to boost revenue this fiscal year.

Taxing bodies are allowed the option of adjusting their millage rates without voter approval due to the parishwide property reassessment conducted by the parish Assessor’s Office.

Assessors must reassess property values in their parishes every four years.

During reassessment years, public bodies such as the School Board are required by law to “roll back” their tax rates to levels that will generate the same revenue as the previous year.

But when property values increase, such as in Pointe Coupee Parish, elected bodies can vote to keep the school district’s millage the same, or “roll them forward,” to create the additional revenue.