Homeowners Just Got Charged More. Now Let’s Talk About the 37% That Pays Nothing. → Black Source Media

TL;DR

The City Council raised property taxes on homeowners Thursday to help close the budget gap. One day later, a BGR report showed that $2.74 billion in New Orleans tax-exempt property, 37% of the city’s real estate value, pays no property tax. Homeowners went first again. Before the final budget vote on Nov. 19, the council should commit to a plan that makes everyone who uses our streets and drains help pay for them.

Key Points

The council’s property tax roll-forward raises about $23 million a year. The average homeowner pays roughly $180 more.
BGR found $2.74 billion, or 37%, of the city’s real estate assessed value was tax-exempt in 2025.
Public property makes up 55% of that exempt value. Universities, hospitals and other nonprofits hold much of the rest.
If that property were taxed at 2025 rates, local governments would collect about $316 million more a year.
BGR’s top recommendation is an infrastructure fee that tax-exempt owners would also pay.

Thursday, the New Orleans City Council voted 7-0 to raise property taxes. The roll-forward will bring in about $23 million a year. For the owner of an average home, that’s about $180 more next year.

Friday, the Bureau of Governmental Research told us something every homeowner in this city should sit with. In 2025, $2.74 billion, or 37%, of New Orleans’ real estate value was exempt from property taxes.

Read those two facts side by side. When the city came up short, it went to the people who always pay. It didn’t go to the owners of more than a third of the property in town.

Open field beside the city skyline, a reminder of how much New Orleans tax-exempt property sits off the tax rolls

Who Isn’t Paying

New Orleans tax-exempt property isn’t one big villain. Louisiana’s constitution exempts government buildings, plus nonprofit property like universities and hospitals. Homeowners get the first $75,000 of value exempt under the homestead exemption. Some private developers get breaks too, as incentives to build.

Government owns the biggest share. BGR says public property accounts for 55% of the exempt value. The rest is held largely by big nonprofit institutions. These are the campuses, medical centers and other large landholders you drive past every day.

I’m not saying every church, school or shelter should get a tax bill. BGR isn’t saying that either. Its president, Rebecca Mowbray, made the same point: many exemptions serve real public goals. But she also put the problem plainly. When this much value is off the rolls, everybody else carries more of the load.

That “everybody else” is you. It’s the retiree in Pontchartrain Park and the young family in New Orleans East. We pay for the drains, the streetlights and the police and fire protection that keep those exempt campuses running too.

The Number That Should Wake Everybody Up

BGR estimates that if all exempt real estate were taxed at 2025 rates, local governments would bring in about $316 million more each year. Put another way, the overall millage rate could have been about 32% lower for the rest of us.

Nobody serious thinks the city will collect all of that. Changing these exemptions takes a two-thirds vote of the Legislature and then approval from voters statewide. That isn’t happening by Christmas.

Still, compare $316 million to the $23 million homeowners were just asked to cover. The city isn’t broke because homeowners are skipping their bills. A big piece of the tax base was never on the bill in the first place.

The Fix Is Already on the Table

BGR’s top recommendation is a fee for infrastructure. Unlike a tax, a fee can apply to every property owner, exempt or not. If your building drains into our pipes, you help pay for the pipes.

Timing matters here. One of the city’s three drainage property taxes expires in 2027, with another following in 2031. BGR has found that 60% of the drainage system’s current revenue is at risk. We are about to have a drainage funding fight whether we want one or not.

Councilmember Jason Hughes said it right after the tax vote: “We cannot continue to balance the budget solely on our homeowners.” Mayor Moreno and the council have both said they want nonprofits to contribute. Good. Words are free, though. I want a plan with a date on it.

Here’s My Warning

I’ve watched this city create fees before. Too often they land hardest on the people who already pay everything. A new infrastructure fee that simply becomes one more charge on homeowners would make this problem worse, not better.

So any fee has to be built the right way from the start. It should be based on what a property actually puts into the drainage system. It should apply to the large exempt owners, including government agencies. And it needs a public accounting of where every dollar goes.

The city has homework of its own, too. BGR also called on City Hall to identify the vacant and underused property it owns and put it to productive use. You can’t ask a university or a hospital system to do its part while city-owned lots sit empty and blighted on our blocks.

What the Council Should Do Before Nov. 19

The final budget vote is Nov. 19. Even with the new tax money, the city still has to cut about $30 million. The council doesn’t need to solve exemptions by then. It does need to commit to three things.

First, publish a list of the largest tax-exempt owners in New Orleans and the value they hold. Louisiana doesn’t even have a statewide database of exempt property. If the Assessor’s office could correct $721 million in errors that BGR found, the public deserves to see the full list.

Second, set a deadline for an infrastructure fee proposal, well before the 2027 drainage tax expires. Third, bring the big nonprofits to the table now, in public, for voluntary payments in lieu of taxes while the fee is designed.

Homeowners did their part Thursday. We didn’t get a choice. Now it’s time for everyone else who benefits from this city to pay their share.

About the Author

Jeff Thomas is the founder and publisher of Black Source Media and the owner of WBOK 1230 AM in New Orleans. He is also CEO of Fenix AI and leads Total Computer Solutions and Services, a New Orleans IT firm that has served government agencies for 30 years. He writes about New Orleans and Louisiana politics, power and accountability.

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Jeff Thomas

Publisher — Black Source Media Jeff Thomas Publisher • Opinion Columnist • New Orleans Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades. His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands. He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had. Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know. They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead. Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans? The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It. The Failure of Mitch Landrieu

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