NEW ORLEANS — In 2025, $2.74 billion, or 37%, of New Orleans’ real estate assessed value was exempt from property taxes, according to a Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) report released Nov. 5. The share is likely among the largest nationally.
The report updates BGR’s 1996 study, Property Taxes in New Orleans: Who Pays? Who Doesn’t? And Why?, which found that 65% of real estate assessed value was off the tax rolls. Growth in taxable property value since Hurricane Katrina, along with post-Katrina reforms and anti-blight efforts, has flipped the shares of exempt and taxable real estate. But exemptions remain a major structural constraint on the property tax base, which provides about half of all local tax dollars in New Orleans.
“Many exemptions serve important public goals, and this report is not a call to tax all exempt property,” said BGR President and CEO Rebecca Mowbray. “But when more than a third of the city’s real estate value is off the tax rolls, the residents and businesses that do pay property taxes carry a greater share of the cost. With a key drainage tax set to expire in 2027, City leaders have an opportunity to make sure owners of tax-exempt property help support the services and infrastructure they rely on.”…