Did creating an assessment district end the Plaquemines school board's share of assessor equipment costs?

Plain-English summary

Plaquemines Parish's school superintendent asked whether the school board still owed a share of assessor expenses after an assessment district began funding the assessor's office. In 2000, the attorney general's office said the district tax replaced only the pro rata deductions from tax receipts that funded the assessor's salary and expense account. It did not remove the separate equipment obligation under R.S. 33:4713.

Under that provision as quoted in the opinion, the police jury bought needed furniture, equipment, supplies, and maps, then billed tax-recipient bodies for their proportional shares. The school board therefore remained responsible for its share of those equipment expenses.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2000. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

School board officials at the time

The opinion said the Plaquemines Parish School Board still had to share assessor equipment expenses billed by the police jury. The assessment district did not replace that separate cost-sharing rule.

Police juries at the time

The office said the police jury remained responsible for buying the equipment listed in R.S. 33:4713 and billing the other tax recipients for their shares.

Parish assessors at the time

The opinion distinguished the assessor salary and expense fund financed through the assessment district from the equipment and supplies that the parish governing authority provided under another statute.

Common questions

Q: Did the assessment district pay every assessor-office cost instead of tax recipients?
A: No. The opinion said its tax replaced salary-and-expense deductions, while R.S. 33:4713 still governed equipment costs.

Q: Who bought the assessor's equipment?
A: The opinion said the police jury made the purchases and billed other tax recipients for their proportional shares.

Q: Did the school board still owe an equipment share?
A: Yes. The office concluded that the school board's obligation to the police jury remained after the district began funding the salary and expense account.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion read R.S. 47:1925.2 and the district taxing provision alongside R.S. 47:1906, which described deductions for assessor salaries and expenses. It separated that funding stream from R.S. 33:4713's requirements for offices, furniture, equipment, supplies, and maps. Because the district provision addressed the former deductions, it did not displace the police jury's equipment-purchase and cost-sharing process.

Citations and references

• R.S. 33:4713 (assessor offices, equipment, and recipient shares)
• R.S. 47:1906 (assessor salary and expense fund)
• R.S. 47:1925.2 (assessment district creation)
• R.S. 47:1925.3 (district tax described in the opinion)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/00-0414

Original opinion text

November 17, 2000
OPINION NUMBER 00–414

4
Assessors
90-
Police Juries-Powers and Functions
96
Schools and School Districts-Fiscal Management
Mr. James C. Hoyle
R.S. 33:4713, 47:1906 and 47:1925.2 and 1925.3 Superintendent
Tax Assessment Districts created under R.S. 47:1925.2 do not relieve police juries of Plaquemines Parish School Board their obligation to provide assessors with equipment in accordance with R.S.
P. O. Box 69
33:4713.

557 F. Edward Hebert Blvd.
Belle Chasse, LA 70037

Dear Superintendent Hoyle:

You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General’s Office relative to the responsibility, of the Plaquemines Parish School Board (Board) to share in the expenses of the Plaquemines Parish Assessor’s Office (Assessor’s Office). You specifically ask whether the Board is responsible for a pro rata share of the expenses of the Assessor’s Office, even though the Plaquemine Parish Assessment District (District) was established for the purpose of funding the Assessor’s Office.

As you are aware, R.S. 33:4713 provides for the funding of the expenses of the Assessor’s Office. It provides, in pertinent part, the following:

§ 4713. Providing quarters for court and parish officers

Each parish shall provide…such other offices as may be needed by the…assessors of the parish and shall provide the necessary heat and illumination therefor.

The cost of such furniture and equipment, supplies and maps, as may be needed by the…assessors of each parish shall be borne proportionately by all tax recipient bodies in the parish in the proportion of the amount received from such tax monies by each recipient body in the parish.

The police jury or other governing authority shall make these purchases and then bill the other tax recipients for their proportionate share.

R.S. 47:1925.2 is the statutory authority for the creation of the District. Section 1925.3 authorizes the District to levy taxes and provides, in pertinent part, the following:

Page 2

Mr. James C. Hoyle
Superintendent
Plaquemines Parish School Board
Page: -2-

§ 1925.3 Method of taxation; referendum to increase taxes beyond initial authorization

A. …the district hereby created shall levy a tax on the assessed valuation of all taxable property appearing on the 1985 and subsequent tax rolls, without a vote of the people, in an amount that will produce for the district in the initial year that the option is exercised the same revenue as that authorized by law to be deducted pro rata from that year’s tax roll for the assessor’s salary and expense fund. (Emphasis added.)

We further direct your attention to R.S. 47:1906 which provides, in pertinent part, for the salaries and expenses for the Assessor’s Office.

§ 1906. Salaries and expense funds; Orleans excepted

A. There shall be a fund for the payment of the salaries and allowances of the assessors, and all recipients of taxes, whether state, parish, school, levee, drainage or others, shall contribute their full proportion of the total due in accordance with the amount of taxes to be received by each. The pro rata due the assessor’s salary and expense allowance, except exempted municipalities, shall be remitted direct to the assessor by the sheriff and ex officio tax collector from the first tax collections when the tax rolls are filed each year, and prorated among the state, parish, school, levee, drainage and other recipients of taxes in proportion to the amount of taxes to be received by each. (Emphasis added.)

It is the opinion of this office that the funding provided for in Section 1925.3, quoted above, is meant to replace only the pro rata deductions referred to in R.S. 47:1906 for the Assessor’s Salary and Expense Fund. Accordingly, the establishment of the District does not relieve the Police Jury of its obligation to provide the Assessor with the equipment enumerated in Section 4713. In accord are Attorney General Opinion Nos. 94-269 and 88-79-A.

We find support for our opinion from the language in Section 4713 that the “…police jury…shall make these purchases, and then bill the other tax recipients for their proportionate share”. Section 4713 makes no reference whatsoever to “pro rata deductions” from tax receipts. The “pro rata deductions” clearly reference Sections 1925.3 and 1906. In accord are Attorney General Opinion Nos. 99-4, 97-262, 95-45 and 94-269.

In conclusion, it is the opinion of this office that the utilization of the District for the funding of the Assessor’s Salary and Expense Fund does not relieve the School Board

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Mr. James C. Hoyle
Superintendent
Plaquemines Parish School Board
Page: -3-

of its obligations to the Police Jury to share in the equipment expenses enumerated in R.S. 33:4713.

Trusting this adequately responds to your inquiry, I am

Very truly yours,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
Attorney General

By:
ROBERT E. HARROUN, III
Assistant Attorney General

RPI/REH,3/sfj

Page 4

SYLLABUS
OPINION NUMBER 00-414

4
Assessors
90- Police Juries-Powers and Functions
96 Schools and School Districts-Fiscal Management

R.S. 33:4713, 47:1906 and 47:1925.2 and 1925.3

Tax Assessment Districts created under R.S. 47:1925.2 do not relieve police juries of their obligation to provide assessors with equipment in accordance with R.S. 33:4713.

Mr. James C. Hoyle
Superintendent
Plaquemines parish School Board
P. O. Box 69
557 F. Edward Hebert Blvd.
Belle Chasse, LA 70037

DATE RECEIVED:

DATE RELEASED: November 17, 2000

Robert E. Harroun, III
Assistant Attorney General