This week in Sportsman’s Paradise: Road Taxes Defeated – Library Tax Passes

On December 7, 2024, Union Parish voters overwhelmingly rejected proposed tax renewals for roads and bridges; but, narrowly passed a renewal of the Union Parish Library millage.
Earlier this year, Assessor Lance Futch’s proposed reassessments increased the assessment base of property within the parish from some $195,000,000 to some $222,000,00. This increased the taxes across the parish by $1,996,000 – call it $2,000,000 per year.
The governing bodies, UPPJ, TOF, School Board and the town of Bernice not only adopted the reassessment numbers but voted to impose those new taxes in 2024, one year earlier than normally would have occurred, offering no explanation as to why they made the increase effective with this year’s tax bill.
Police Juror Brenda Abercrombie voted against that action and Police Juror A. J. Ford was absent for that vote at the August 2024 UPPJ meeting. All other jurors present voted in favor of accepting the reassessment and imposing it a year earlier than required.
The effect was to raise taxes by some 22 per cent on average across the parish and some 33 per cent on average across the town of Farmerville.
The current road and library millages expire December 31, 2026. Between now and then, expect the governing bodies to seek renewal of the road millages again.
The Union Parish voting results on taxes were as follows:
Prop 1 – 10-year renewal 5.13 mills road maintenance and construction:
Defeated 1,454 No to 925 Yes – Defeated by 61 per cent.
Prop 2 – 10-year renewal 6.15 mills – roads and bridges:
Defeated 1462 No 914 Yes – Defeated by 62 per cent.
Prop 3 – 10-year renewal 2.4 mills – Public Library:
Passed 1230 Yes to 1147 No – Passed by 52 per cent.
At last week’s police jury meeting, Police Juror Abercrombie sought to amend the agenda to re-visit the tax reassessment and application of it to 2024. Jurors Pilgreen and Holly blocked that effort. It is possible that she will request it be placed on the agenda as a separate agenda item for the January 2025 UPPJ meeting.