New Orleans agencies could pocket property tax windfall
Times-Picayune (excerpt)

City government and other entities in Orleans Parish could see a property tax windfall of up to 10 percent next year, thanks to a revaluation effort by Assessor Erroll Williams that saw about a quarter of the city's properties receive higher tax assessments. The new valuations set up an interesting political dynamic, in which City Hall, the School Board and other entities will have to decide whether to keep the extra revenue or to lower tax rates and return some of it to residents. State law says that in a mandatory quadrennial reassessment year, all taxing bodies must "roll back" tax rates so that they do not receive an automatic windfall from higher property valuations. But they are then free to vote to "roll forward" the millage rate to the prior level, meaning they can keep the extra tax revenue.