Let’s drop the brochure language.

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The Assessor does not collect your taxes.
The Assessor does not set your millage.

The Assessor does one job that decides almost everything else: put a number on what your property is worth. Not for you to sell it, but to decide how much to tax you on it.

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That number is your assessed value.

Residential land and houses are assessed at 10% of “fair market value.”

Commercial is 15%.

Your tax bill is that number x whatever millage the school board, fire districts, parish, library, and everybody else voted to keep or raise.

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That’s the whole machine.

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If the value is inflated, you pay more.

If similar houses on the same street are valued differently, your neighbor could be paying thousands more in taxes.
If the Assessor's office sets values high enough so taxing bodies can collect extra money without going back to the voters, that’s not a rounding error.

That’s the system working against you.

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I know because I’ve been on your side of the desk since 2016. I run a property tax abatement business. I have sat with homeowners in Slidell, Lacombe, Mandeville, and Covington while they stared at a notice that said their house jumped 20, 30, 40 percent with no new kitchen, no extra bedroom, and no explanation that made sense.

 

I’ve filed the reviews.

I’ve gone to the Board of Review.

I’ve watched people miss the August deadline because nobody told them the only window that actually matters is two weeks in August, not November when the bill shows up.

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St. Tammany parish deserves better.

We know values went up after COVID.

We also know the 2024 reassessment left a lot of us feeling like the numbers were high so agencies could keep more money without a vote. All we know is that taxing bodies got more revenue. WE ALL got the bill.

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That’s the part people are tired of.

An honest Assessor’s office does 3 things:

1. Values property the same way for everybody; same street, same construction, same market. No favorites, no “we’ll look at it later.”

2. Puts the data where you can actually see it. Sales used, adjustments made, exemptions applied. Not a black box and a “trust us.”

3. Tells the taxing bodies the truth about growth instead of handing them extra room and acting surprised when the quiet part is said out loud.

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I am not running to be another politician who talks about “fairness and equity” and then hides behind the Louisiana Tax Commission.

I have spent years fighting the assessments this very office produces.

I know where the files sit, how the reviews actually get handled, and how many people give up because the process is designed to wear you out.

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You want transparency?

Good.

You should.

 

This office touches every homeowner, every small business, every widow on a fixed income in this parish.

It should not feel like a secret society with a GIS map and a press release.

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Check your assessment every August.

File the review if the number is wrong.

Don’t wait for the tax bill.

And if you want an Assessor who has already been in the fight with you instead of the office that created the fight; then you already know why I’m doing this.

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Your Candidate for St. Tammany Parish Assessor's Office,

Arthur Laughlin
Realtor | Notary | Property Tax Advocate