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Local business owners urge more agencies to roll back property tax rates
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BATON ROUGE - A few agencies have made the decision to roll back their property tax rate after many property values increased in East Baton Rouge after the latest reassessment.
"At least in the short-term, anything that you do to help maintain people's cash flow in a time like this is a good thing," Lance Paddock said.
Baton Rouge homeowners like Paddock will not be paying any more property taxes than they already are. Several local agencies have chosen to roll back their property tax rate in order to ease the financial burden during the pandemic.
"If they can do it without cutting essential services to the most needy in our population, I think that makes sense," he said.
The East Baton Rouge Council on Aging released a statement Wednesday discussing the decision.
"Currently, it is being proposed the authorized levied amount of our millage be reduced to a rate of 2.130. After careful consideration our agency has elected to accept this millage rollback. However, our agency will continue to review our budget on annual basis and evaluate the need to increase the current rate of 2.130 that we will be accepting for this year.
The services provided by our agency are made possible by the dedicated funding provided by the taxpayer's millage. We are incredibly thankful to the citizens of East Baton Rouge Parish for allowing us to care for the seniors in the parish. Our agency will continue to use the funds appropriated by the millage to support the independence of senior living and further expand the programming offered to our seniors."
On Tuesday, the Capital Area Transit System also voted to roll back their property tax rate after many property values increased in East Baton Rouge after the latest re-assessment.
For homeowners and businesses who have faced hardship in recent months, any little bit helps.
"People have lost their jobs. With us, we were forced to shut down," Paddock said.
BREC is expected to make a public statement about where they stand on the possibility of rolling back on their property tax rates Thursday.
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