Authorizes limited increases in annual compensation for assessors in each parish (EG +$847,031 LF EX See Note)

HB 812 amends the Louisiana Revised Statutes governing assessor compensation by creating a new subsection that authorizes parish assessors to receive annual five percent increases in their compensation for four consecutive years beginning in calendar year 2026 through calendar year 2029. The bill adds R.S. 47:1907(N) and amends R.S. 47:1907(A)(1) to implement this mechanism while preserving all existing compensation forms previously authorized by statute, including the base salary schedule tied to parish population, personal expense allowances, certification bonuses, and prior one-time or temporary increases. The increase becomes effective only upon the assessor satisfying a public notice requirement: publishing notice of intent to increase compensation on two separate occasions in the parish official journal, with the final publication occurring at least thirty days before the compensation increase takes effect.

Parish assessors will experience potential increases in annual compensation of five percent per year if they comply with the notice requirements, meaning an assessor in a parish with population greater than 250,000 receiving the base salary of $108,290 could increase compensation by approximately $5,415 annually during the four-year window. The practical effect depends on individual assessor decisions to initiate the public notice process, as the compensation increases are not mandatory but rather discretionary subject to the publication requirement. This legislation affects assessors across all sixty-four Louisiana parishes regardless of population size, though the dollar impact scales with the base compensation tiers established by existing law. No impact flows to local government budgets unless individual assessors exercise the option to increase their compensation through proper notice.

This legislation operates within the existing statutory framework of R.S. 47:1907, which establishes a comprehensive compensation structure for parish assessors that has been modified incrementally over several decades through various legislative additions. The bill preserves the population-based compensation tiers and all previously authorized supplemental compensation mechanisms, adding the new five-percent annual increase as an additional authorization rather than replacing prior provisions. The notice requirement operates as a transparency mechanism, ensuring that the public in each parish receives advance warning of assessor compensation increases through publication in the official journal. The effective date of July 1, 2026 synchronizes the authorization with the beginning of the statutory compensation period, and the four-year window through 2029 establishes a defined endpoint for this particular authorization, consistent with how Louisiana has previously enacted temporary or limited-duration compensation modifications for assessors.