By T. Scott Boatright
Amid economically turbulent times, the Lincoln Parish School Board offered an olive branch to most Lincoln Parish property taxpayers during Tuesday night’s August meeting at the Central Office.
Recently around 9,000 Lincoln Parish residential and commercial property owners received reassessment notices from the parish assessor’s office informing them of significant increases in their property values. This could potentially lead to significant increases in their property taxes.
State law mandates the tax collected in the year following a reassessment is adjusted so that it is equal to the tax collected the previous year on the same property tax base.
And that is what the LPSB voted to do Tuesday night — rolling back most of its millages to counter the increases in revenue caused by increased assessed values.
Fifty-seven percent of the Lincoln Parish property tax collected is earmarked for the Lincoln Parish School Board each year. Lincoln Parish property taxes generated a total of $45.4 million in 2023.
Tuesday night’s decision by the LPSB will save property owners a significant amount of the potential increase in their property taxes based on the most recent decisions by the tax accessors office.
“Essentially, what we’re trying to do for most of the people in our parish who saw an increase in their property values … as a school board we’re going to keep the amount of money that was paid last year the same this year for as many people as possible,” said LPSB President Gregg Phillips. “We will adjust them down so that (most of parish property taxpayers) will pay the same amount in property taxes for the Lincoln Parish School Board.
“The only one that is going up is Simsboro, and that is simply because the property tax value dropped because oil and gas money (there) dropped. So, to keep things neutral, Simsboro property owners will have to pay a little bit more. But we are not rolling any of these other values forward.”
Phillips said that because this is the first year following the (school board bond) election, the LPSB is keeping the bond at 16.75 mills this year and will reevaluate that in the future.
“So, every year we’ll be looking at that,” Phillips said. “Simsboro is going to remain at 11.5 and Choudrant is going to remain at 14 for this year. Regarding the other property taxes, they will roll back to the same amount collected this year, so that should give a big sigh of relief to most of the property owners in Lincoln Parish.”
That news came after the LPSB passed the adoption of resolutions recognizing the final form and execution of Bond Purchase Agreements in connection with the issuances and sales of General Obligation Bonds for Ruston School District No.1 and Choudrant School District No. 6.
Lincoln Parish Schools bond attorney Grant Schlueter, Stifle Financial Corporation Managing Director Whitney Laird and Argent Financial Group Executive Vice President Lucius McGehee all appeared before the LPSB speaking on those matters.
“The bonds were priced successfully with very, very good sales results,” Schlueter said. “You are maintaining your bond rating with Standard and Poor’s.”
McGehee said that when the LPSB administration team got together and was looking at the capital improvement plan, and the things the school board wanted to build, and how that would be financed, he and his company set about to find out how to finance it in the best possible way.
“Your previous rating by Standard & Poors was a ‘Double A minus, which is one of the highest in the state,” McGehee said. “It is like a credit score for people trying to get a loan. The rating goes from Triple A, to Double A Plus, Double A, Double A minus all the way to Triple B Minus, C and D.
“What we are dealing with is Double A minus, which is about the best you are going to see in the state. That is the financial condition of the school board. That comes from enrollment, sales tax base and the reserves the school district has and how they are managing it. Louisiana ranks low nationally, so we are already starting from a place of weakness on a national perspective. So, we have to do extra things to make up for that. And that is what happened with the financial administration and you as a school board do with the money.”
It all boils down to the lower a Standard & Poor’s rating is then the higher interest rate an entity will be charged.
“So, we can say congratulations to what (the LPSB is) doing to have a Double A Minus credit rating on this bond issue. It was affirmed for your other bond issues to remain at a Double A Minus right now with what you guys have done, and I have confidence you will continue to do with how you manage your finances,” MeGehee said. “That certainly helps out Whitney when she’s out selling the bonds.”
McGehee said the 16.7 mills for the Ruston School District was based on how much money would be generated by those millages and also the bond reserve account that already exists for the school district.
“We figured that with 16.75 mills plus a little bit of the reserves that we have, we can borrow $17.5 million,” McGehee said. “And that is what we did. We borrowed this $17.5 million for five years. Now you have other bonds that are longer dated than that, but this one we just did is for five years. We are assessing that 16.75 mills for not only that but also the other bonds the school district has along with the reserves.
“We are spending down some of the reserves along with the millage income that you are getting to pay these bonds off. We thought that was a prudent way to do that, and Standard & Poor’s agreed with that.”
McGehee said that the same process was done with the $2 million Choudrant bond issue that is for 20 years.
