Morgan City Council sets tax rates, praises business

Morgan City property owners will pay the same city property tax rates this year, but the city government will receive more tax revenue.
The Morgan City Council on Tuesday set two property tax rates based on reassessment of property and gave an award normally reserved for city residents to an out-of-town company with a big local payroll.
With a pair of ordinances, the council kept two millages at their previous levels: 16.07 mills for general purposes and 2 mills specifically for Morgan City Municipal Auditorium.
This year’s reassessment puts the assessed value of taxable property in the city at just less than $139 million, up from about $134 million after the 2020 assessment. Louisiana’s constitution requires local governments to roll back their millage rates in order to make increases in assessed valuation revenue-neutral.
But the local governments have the option of returning the millages to the pre-reassessment level by a two-thirds vote. That’s what the council did Tuesday, by a 4-0 vote with council members Lou Tamporello, the Rev. Ron Bias, Bonnie Leonard and Tim Hymel voting in favor. Councilman Steve Domangue was absent.
The increase in assessed valuation would have lowered the general purpose property tax rate to 15.85 mills and the auditorium tax to 1.97 mills.
A mill is 1/10th cent of tax on each dollar of assessed valuation. The owner of a $200,000 home would have paid $5 a year less in taxes if the rollbacks had been allowed to stand.
Also Tuesday, the council’s Positive Image Award went to Performance Contractors Inc. of Amelia.
Tamporello praised the company, which began operations at the old McDermott yard in Amelia in October 2022.
“Even though they’re not Morgan City proper,” Tamporello said, “they’re out in Amelia, and they’ve got a lot of people buying food and gas.”
A lot means a lot. Tamporello said Performance, which makes pretreatment process modules for liquefied natural gas work, employs 2,500 people.
And, Tamporello noted, the company collected donations from employees totaling $30,000 for the local Toys for Tots campaign.
“We’re excited to be in Morgan City,” Performance Project Manager Chris Abendroth said, “and we hope for more in the years to come.”
Also Tuesday:
—The council voted to spend $130,000 from Municipal Auditorium funds to remodel the ballroom bathrooms at the facility.
But Finance Committee Chairman Hymel asked for more time on another committee proposal: buying golf carts, pontoon boats and other items worth $175,000 from Pelican Companies. Lake End Rentals will not be offering those items at Lake End Park any more.
The idea behind the purchase was for the city government to take over those rentals. But Hymel said another potential purchaser is interested in taking over the rentals, and he wants to see if that deal can be made.
That worried Mayor Lee Dragna, who said a delay could lead Pelican to sell the equipment elsewhere.
The equipment list includes nine golf carts, three pontoon boats, four kayaks, beach chair and umbrella sets, toys and life jackets, two trailers and a golf cart shed.
—Dragna called for a meeting involving city officials and the potential developer of a mobile home park on land bounded by Industry Road and La. 182.
James Beranek of Beranek Land Holdings has plans for a $1.7 million, 40-lot mobile home park surrounded by a 9-foot fence.
The plans include a small shed for each lot and a requirement that mobile homes there be no more than 5 years old.
But some nearby property owners are concerned about the impact on drainage in the area. That will be the topic of discussions about plans for the mobile home park.
The Planning & Zoning Commission voted April 9 to rezone the property from commercial to residential.