If you live in St. Tammany Parish and haven’t gotten an email in the last month asking you to sign a petition to raise the homestead exemption… well… then you probably haven’t checked your email.

For weeks, an online petition has been circulating with a promise that at 5,000 signatures it will be forwarded to every member of the Legislature. The goal of the petition is to raise the Homestead Exemption – long set at $75,000 – to more than double that amount, a step that would require a constitutional amendment and that would result in no small amount of angst for local taxing authorities. It’s also not all it’s cracked up to be.

School Board Member Mary K. Bellisario and her husband, Parish Councilman Gene Bellisario, have been fighting back with an email of their own. Among other things, the email from the Bellisarios cautions that an increase in the exemption would result in higher taxes for many homeowners.

“Be careful for what you ask for; you will likely get something very different,” the email reads. “Many of you will pay higher millages since some of the property taxes are for bond payments for capital projects, such as schools and other government buildings and projects. These millages will be automatically increased -- as mandated by law -- to meet those debt service payments. Therefore, all of you whose homes are assessed above the "new and better" homestead exemption will pay exorbitant property taxes while many, many others will pay nothing . If this petition is successful, even fewer people will be paying the entire cost of public services for the rest of the parish.”

It’s a harsh reality that may sneak up on unsuspecting signers of the petition if it were to be successful – which is not likely, given the reality of the situation and the gravity of local and state economics.

And the Bellisario’s are not alone.

“This is something that really concerns me,” said state Sen. Jack Donahue (R-Mandeville). “I don’t think raising the Homestead Exemption is the answer to our problems.”

The problems ensuing from property tax collections arose late last summer when property owners received mandatory assessment letters showing dramatic increases in home values. Under state law, assessors are required to reassess every property in the state every four years. The catch is that the assessment is to be based on the property’s value at the beginning of the previous year. 2008 assessments therefore – conducted in the middle of a recession and housing market crash – are based on 2007 values.

Donahue said if the Exemption were raised, millages would automatically roll upward to offset the loss and fewer property owners would be stuck with the bill.

“There will be fewer people to pay the tax,” he said. “You’d have to divide the same amount as last year by a fewer number of people.”

Donahue and Rep. Tim Burns (R-Mandeville) said an increase in the Exemption to $100,000 would mean a skyrocketing millage rate on everyone with homes valued at $179,000 or more.

“We calculated that going from $75,000 to $100,000, the break-even point would be $179,000,” Burns said. “Anyone above that would pay more taxes.”

And more taxes is exactly what the petition seeks to avoid. Local taxing authorities, already under pressure from constituents to reduce millage rates, would be caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. Adopt the automatically-higher rates to maintain services, or keep millage rates the same and collect less – providing fewer services for an already hostile electorate.

“It would be quite natural for a homeowner with an assessment of $150,000 or less to seek freedom from taxation, however the impact of such a drastic increase could cause unintended consequences,” said Rep. Kevin Pearson (R-Slidell), who said constituent services – particularly from local governments such as the School Board, Parish Government, fire and law enforcement, would all suffer.

“The educational system in a parish would greatly suffer from massive layoffs and salary cuts for teachers,” Pearson said. “Fire protection would be sacrificed along with job cuts and station closures, thus leading to even higher insurance premiums. Ditches would become overgrown, mosquitoes more plentiful, and virtually every service provided for by parish government would significantly reduced.”

Not a pretty picture, no matter how much everyone wants a lower tax bill.

Superintendent of Schools Gayle Sloan agreed.

Councilman Ken Burkhalter said he, too, opposes an increase – at least without further study and a way to offset revenue losses.

“I would have a problem with it being raised,” Burkhalter said. “If it was implemented throughout the state, we would need to do a study to see how much to raise it, too. I do realize a lot things would have be considered because of schools and fire departments, etc. We would have to look for other sources to generate revenue.”

Not everyone, however, is completely opposed to the idea.

“My thought would be to have legislation that would increase the homestead exemption over a period of time so that the ‘sticker shock’ doesn't affect our quality of life all at once and the individual taxing districts would have time to adjust,” said Parish Councilman Henry Billiot. He added that a dramatic, all-at-once increase in the Exemption would have potentially catastrophic impact.

“I think it’s obvious that we are overtaxed but we voted for these millages and these millages are used by the different taxing districts to support the activities from Pelican Park to Fire Districts to STARC, etc.,” Billiot said. “Increasing the homestead exemption would limit the funds to the taxing districts – the school system and Sheriff's Office being the largest. Although I do feel that when times are bad that everyone should adjust, including government, we need to reduce taxes over a period of time as opposed to a single proposition. Services provided to the public could and should be restructured, but we've enjoyed the best schools, a safe environment for our families and a quality of life that others only wish for.”

“St. Tammany got a double whammy because our assessments went out of sight,” Donahue said. “As legislators, we need to put a stop to that. I don’t think this is the solution, but there are answers out there.”

Donahue said legislation is being considered that would cap the annual increase of millage revenue at 2.5 percent – slightly below the Consumer Price Index. Another option would prohibit appointed boards from rolling millages forward without a vote of the people. Burns said he has at least one bill already planned to address the matter in the 2009 Legislative Session.

“I’m going to propose a bill that says any non-elected entity would have to have roll-forwards approved by the appointing entities,” Burns said. “If no public entity appointed them, it would revert to the Parish. It would make unelected boards more accountable to the taxpayers.”

Unelected taxing authorities – such as the 15 fire district boards in the Parish – have heretofore been able to roll millages upwards, increasing tax collections, without any electoral oversight. And since those boards (as only one example) are appointed by Parish or municipal officials, Burns’ bill would punt it back into the appointing authority – or authorities’ – hands.

“The average home in St. Tammany Parish is about $250,000,” Donahue said. “If the Homestead Exemption was raised from $75,000 to $100,000, more than half the people in St. Tammany would have taxes go up, including some of the people signing this petition. We need to just leave it (the Homestead Exemption) alone.”

More than just impacting government services, an increase in the Exemption would have an indirect effect on the entire local and state economies.

“Facing additional taxes during difficult economic times might force additional layoffs from business,” Pearson said. “Nevertheless, I am finding that a large number of constituents are facing increases from a few hundred to several thousand dollars in increase. If the large increases in assessments are revenue neutral yet so many homeowners are facing drastic increases in their tax, it leads to the question, ‘Who is paying less?’”

While the prevailing temperature on the issue of an exemption increase is frigid, state Sen. A.G. Crowe (R-Slidell) said the matter bears consideration – and input.

“The most important question for me is how my constituents feel,” Crowe said. “I am still actively gathering input from them on this issue. I expect as we get closer to the next legislative session, many more will have expressed their opinions, and, one way or the other and I will have a good understanding as to how they want me to proceed. Increasing/decreasing the exemption is a very complicated matter requiring much thought and deliberation since it impacts the budgets of taxpayers as well as public entities.”

Opponents of an Exemption increase are plentiful in the local public sector. Panicked taxpayers, on the other hand, are equally plentiful and may be, as the Bellisario’s wrote, be asking for something without understanding the full ramifications – impacts that extend far beyond the bottom line on the tax bill.

“I recall the time when many homeowners did not pay their fair share of taxes since homes were grossly undervalued,” said Sloan. “That meant that businesses, who do not receive a homestead exemption, bore the brunt of the tax burden. In fact, it was relatively easy to get taxes passed because most of the people who went out to vote didn't have to pay them on their homes. But, it made the business climate difficult, and let's face it, in the end we paid for the higher taxes for businesses in terms of higher prices on goods and services.”