New Orleans homeowners could be hit with higher taxes

NEW ORLEANS -- Ben Maygarden is only half-joking when he wonders whether he should wear a bulletproof vest to city hall, where he works for one of the city's seven tax assessors.

New Orleans is wrapping up a mandatory, citywide reassessment of property values for the first time since Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

The reassessment could lead to big property tax increases for some homeowners at a time when many already are being hit with soaring insurance premiums in Katrina's aftermath.

"People are going to be upset," said Maygarden, chief deputy to Assessor Nancy Marshall. "We joke about needing bulletproof vests, but it's not entirely a joke."

Assessing property values was a notoriously haphazard process in New Orleans well before Katrina struck. But the August 2005 storm cast an even brighter light on inequities in the system.

For years, critics have complained that the seven elected assessors are prone to undervalue homes to appease their constituents, while other homeowners -- particularly new buyers -- are forced to shoulder an unfair piece of the tax burden.

Last year, seven reform-minded candidates challenged the incumbent assessors with a pledge to quit if elected. Nancy Marshall, a resident of Uptown, a mostly comfortable section of the city that escaped the worst of Katrina, was the only candidate on the "I Quit" ticket to win.

Instead of quitting, she has set her sights on cutting politics out of the process and conducting honest assessments based on the fair-market value of property.

The results may stun the homeowners who elected her. Many will see their assessments more than double or triple after Marshall's deputies finish their work in the Uptown neighborhood, Maygarden said.

Because of the damage wrought by the storm and the exodus of close to half the city's 450,000 residents, property tax revenue was projected to fall from $80.1 million in 2004 to $68.2 million this fiscal year. The city's current $773 million budget relies heavily on disaster-relief loans and grants.