The Opelousas courier., 1889-07-20
TO tAe Tax Payers of St. lam
dry Parish.

The Police Jury OF the several parishes OF
the State before they shall fix and decide on
the amount of taxes to be assessed Tor the
current year, shall cause TO be made ont ah
estimate exhibiting The ral-i0us dfHi# "t t'Pr"
dit,,,e and shall cause the same to he publish
ed, &c.
AN ORDINANCE, JAN, Il. 1851
On motion of Mr. Haas, Resolved that
whereas Oh the 10th Dec, 1888 it was "rdaln-
ed that tho sum of S35. 900 be assessed and
levied as the amount of taxes to be collected
for the services and expenses Tor the year
1899. which amount was appropriately rs
per budget made that day. Now, therefore,
be it resolved, that to secure that amount Il
tax of 10 (tenl mills on the dollar be and IS
hereby levied on all property born" on the
assessment roll of the parish. &c.
We do not know what the assessment tor
this wear will be !: but we know that last year
it was S., 479, 1900. We know that the par
ish licenses amounted to $6O00.0O or more; we
know that there were COLA resident and 90
non resident tax payers last year; tne1inow
the assessment will be much larger this Ecar
because the Police Jury have taken steps TO
have all properties assessed and have employ
cd an able person to do so and who IS at Worh
and has listed thousands OF acres OF land here
tofore not assessed and which is an addition
to the present roll. Therefore we say the 10
mill tax levied as per above ordinance OF Jan.
II, 1889 on the total assessment made by lhe
Assessor, by order of the Police Jury. togeth
er with the licenses collected and to be col
lected will be more than sufficient to reailZe
the $35 900 required by said ordinance OF Jan
u, 1889.
We are notified by the Police Jury, sitting
a. q Board of Reviewers OF the parish, to
show cause if any we have or can, why the
valuation placed upon our property by the
Assessor should not be increased. we can
only answer as follows lst that the assess
ment this year is much larger than last year
| and together with the licenses will be more
| than sufficient to realize the amount required
| by the budget of expenses OF this year as hxed
F, by the Police Jury I'd. that We are not DIS
posed to pay more State taxes which an III
| crease of the present assessment Will necessl-
tate; Sd, that the Polcs jury is estopped
| from varying or changing the budget and that
the assessment is ample to meet the same
without any increase.
! We say the parish debt ought to be paid,
our parish warrants worth dt@tar for dollar,
receivable for taxes, &c, but we tail to see
how such can be reached by the plan adopted
by the Police Jury. Necessarily to put IN de-
| default 6267 tax payers will incur an expense
of at least 81 for notices tat an ayerage), and
will bring about litigation and harrass the al
ready burdened tax payers and will force the
| payment of several thousand dollars of State
taxes to the detrment of the tax payers OF
| the parish and when the State does not eX-
act it. 1t may be, that the parish creditors
if the plan adopted by the Police Jury is
with view of paying the parish debt, may
have some other means of collecting from the
Darish without increasing our State tax
which the method adopted by the Police Jury
is bound to bring about. The constitution o.
this State limits parochiai taxation for al
purposes to ten mills on the total assessment
However, the constitution permits an excep
ton to this limitation for the construction o
public buildings, &c but tn additional ta2
for these purposes must be authorized by ;
special vote.
As we have stated above the assessment a
made out and completed by the Assesso
without --,y increase will be at least four mil
lion dollars, with the ten mills aud abon
Ss0O000 parish licenses there will be Ilth
treasury of the parish s4S,OO0.0o to meet th
payment Of $35 10000 as fixed by the ordi
nance above quoted. WOnust say the pla
adopted by our Police Jury is II novel one
and has some resemblance to the Greek horse
TAX PAYERS,