The last of the four Constitutional Amendments appearing on the December 2024 ballot involves the Louisiana tax sale system.
Do you support an amendment to eliminate mandatory tax sales for nonpayment of property taxes and require the legislature to provide for such procedures by law; to limit the amount of penalty and interest on delinquent property taxes; and to provide for the postponement of property tax payments under certain circumstances?
Let’s first consider the source.
Senator Greg Miller (RINO 4/10) was the author of Senate Bill 119 from the 2024 Regular Session. It ultimately became Act 409 and will appear before the voters in December as a Constitutional Amendment. 409 is a very fitting number for the act because it seeks to wipe clean our entire tax sale system like the all-purpose cleaner by a similar name. Then, it would replace it with something new.
Also, much like 409, which has various versions of history for how the name was ultimately decided upon, the bill’s authors and supporters cannot point to any sound reason for a need to overhaul our tax sale system completely. Coupled with the fact that Miller is the instrument’s author, Jay Luneau (D 1/10) brought SB504 – a seventy-seven-page companion bill to rewrite the entire procedure. We should all be cautious of this amendment. Despite those dubious fingerprints, it passed the House unanimously and only found one dissenter in the Senate, Senator Eddie Lambert (R 5/10). It is similar to when Tehmi Chassion (D 5/10) was the sole vote on the House floor against an unfunded mandate on our school systems. They both seemed to know a thing or two about the subject matter and didn’t just vote with the rest of the herd.
Louisiana’s System
We should all be familiar with Louisiana’s property tax system. You must pay taxes on your real property annually unless exemptions cover the entire taxable value. It doesn’t matter if you own your property outright. If you bought your property thirty years ago, the government still wants you to pay them yearly until you find your way to the grave. As Benjamin Franklin famously penned to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in 1789: “…in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Nothing has changed except taxes, and life expectancy continues to increase. It’s good to be the King!
When a property owner fails to pay their annual tithe by December 31 of each year, the Louisiana Constitution requires the local tax collector (Sheriff) to notify the owner of the delinquency and then advertise the property for sale. Under Louisiana law, the property must be seized, advertised, and a sale attempted by the Sheriff before May 1 of the following year.
The law also provides for various methods by which property sold for delinquent taxes may be reclaimed, annulled, or postponed. This system has been litigated on many occasions and often revised by our legislature to comply with the rulings of our courts. Yet, it has withstood the test of time in Louisiana.
Why the need for change now?
The most substantial evidence favoring changing the system was a recent Supreme Court decision out of Minnesota, Tyler v. Hennepin County. In that case, Geraldine Tyler owned a condominium in Hennepin County, Minnesota. She had accumulated around $15,000 in unpaid real estate taxes, interest, and penalties. County officials seized the condo and sold it for $40,000, keeping the $25,000 excess over Tyler’s tax debt for itself. The Supreme Court reached a unanimous decision when it told Hennepin County it had violated Tyler’s constitutionally protected rights, particularly the Fifth Amendment.
As the Court noted: “The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more.” So, if there were any situation in Louisiana where a tax sale would generate more revenue than necessary to repay the delinquent tax, interest, penalties, and cost, the excess proceeds would need to be reverted to the rightful owner before the property was seized. How hard could it be to rectify that situation? Does it require a complete overhaul of our current system, likely leading to another decade of legal challenges? Or is that the intended outcome of these same lawyers who have had a hand in obstructing tort reform and lowering our automobile insurance rates?
Let’s be clear on this one!
No one likes taxes (except the government, which owes its very existence to ever-increasing taxation). No one likes the idea that a retired couple living on a fixed income that paid for their home decades earlier could lose it because they cannot pay more taxes.
If this amendment passes, we don’t know what we will get. It is completely unnecessary to rewrite the entire process for handling tax debts. This system has survived court challenges and has been modified and changed over the years due to those challenges. This amendment would throw all of that out the window.
The new system would contain longer timelines. This could discourage potential investors and hamper local government entities’ ability to collect delinquent taxes. It also continues to place much more detail than necessary in our state constitution. There’s been much talk about its length and the need to remove things. That was the entire premise of the push for a Constitutional convention earlier in the year. Yet here we are, adding more unnecessary language to it. Why? Again, let us first consider the source, and then we can deduct the motive.
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Making all things become new.
Thanks to the tremendous victory of Donald Trump, the Left is now displaced from the levers of power in the federal government. At our recent event, Dr. James Lindsay warned that this is no cause for celebration. That's because these workers of iniquity aren't gone. They're simply going to re-double their efforts where they're already entrenched. Where do you think that might be? Local. They will continue expanding into public libraries, schools, colleges, and other local government institutions. These are the "soft targets" where Dr. Lindsay said no one expects to have these kinds of battles.
Donald Trump isn't coming to fight the woke mobs at the state and local level. That's our job - yours and mine. It's up to us to hold the line against the Left's encroachment in Louisiana. Who will fill public library boards with Christian Conservatives? That's the work Citizens for a New Louisiana has already been doing for nearly eight years. We've shored up our gains in Lafayette, Livingston, and St. Tammany parishes. However, many more parishes are currently unguarded! Will you help us to expand more Conservative bulwarks into other parishes?
Our success is only possible with additional resources and support from friends like you. We don't just think Louisiana is worth saving; we're doing our part to accomplish it, one little bit at a time. Are you on board? Here's your chance to prove it. Partner with our movement or chip in monthly so this critical work continues.
If everyone who read this article chipped in just $10 a year, we could double our reach.
