Faith

el stevo is back from the assessor's office and reports the following:

OK, finally got in to see my friendly neighborhood ASS-essor this morning. She was rude, argumentative (not in a rational or logical way mind you), dismissive and unreasoanble. Surprise! She refused to change my assessment or even consider it. This Marshall by the way, 6th District.

She seems to think that property tax is the same as sales tax (base it fully on purchase price). I don't agree. There are a lot of subjective intangibles that go into the consideration of what you are willing to pay for a house. I paid a lot more per sq. foot for my house than what is the norm in my hood. I was willing to do that, the house is very small, but nice (980 sq. feet) on 57 by 32 foot lot. 4 rooms and a bath. This ain't no mansion folks.

The sad thing is yes, I'm an attorney, a young (3_, single, professional and I no longer know if I can afford a 4 room house in New Orleans. I live on Patton Street by the way, b/w Henry Clay and Webster. Yes, I know, that snobby hood that everyone loves to hate. There are, however, very good reasons to live there considering N.O. as a whole. This shouldn't really matter.

Marshall basically told me to have faith and trust in the city, i.e., City Council, S&WB, and School Board to lower tax rates. Well, there you have it. I am at the mercy of those 3 upstanding institutions as to whether or not I can continue to afford my tiny little house, and further, I am supposed to have faith in them.

Call me cynical.