2024 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE BILL NO. 119
BY SENATOR MILLER AND REPRESENTATIVES BRYANT, CARRIER, EGAN,
FREEMAN, GADBERRY, GLORIOSO, MCMAKIN AND WYBLE
1 A JOINT RESOLUTION
2 Proposing to amend Article VII, Section 25 of the Constitution of Louisiana, relative to ad
3 valorem tax; to provide for the administration of tax sales of immovable property;
4 to provide for the postponement of taxes under certain circumstances; and to specify
5 an election for submission of the proposition to electors and provide a ballot
6 proposition.
7 Section 1. Be it resolved by the Legislature of Louisiana, two-thirds of the members
8 elected to each house concurring, that there shall be submitted to the electors of the state, for
9 their approval or rejection in the manner provided by law, a proposal to amend Article VII,
10 Section 25 of the Constitution of Louisiana, to read as follows:
11 ยง25. Tax Sales Administration
12 Section 25.(A) Tax Sales Immovables. (1) There shall be no forfeiture of
13 property for nonpayment of taxes. However, the assessment of ad valorem taxes
14 and other impositions on immovable property shall constitute a lien and
15 privilege on the property assessed in favor of the political subdivision to which
16 taxes and other impositions are owed. The legislature shall provide, by law, for
17 the efficient administration of tax sales, which shall include at a minimum:
18 (a) Imposition of interest on the delinquent taxes and other impositions
19 not to exceed one percent per month on a noncompounding basis.
20 (b) Imposition of penalty not to exceed five percent of the delinquent
21 taxes and other impositions.
22 (c) A period of time during which the lien cannot be enforced.
23 (d) A procedure for claiming the excess proceeds from the sale of the
24 property, as a result of the enforcement of the lien.
25 (2) The legislature may, by law, provide authority to the tax collector to
26 waive penalties for good cause.
ACT No. 409
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1 at the expiration of the year in which the taxes are due, the collector, without
2 suit, and after giving notice to the delinquent in the manner provided by law, shall
3 advertise for sale the property on which the taxes are due. The advertisement shall
4 be published in the official journal of the parish or municipality, or, if there is no
5 official journal, as provided by law for sheriffs' sales, in the manner provided for
6 judicial sales. On the day of sale, the collector shall sell the portion of the property
7 which the debtor points out. If the debtor does not point out sufficient property, the
8 collector shall sell immediately the least quantity of property which any bidder will
9 buy for the amount of the taxes, interest, and costs. The sale shall be without
10 appraisement. A tax deed by a tax collector shall be prima facie evidence that a valid
11 sale was made.
12 (2) If property located in a municipality with a population of more than four
13 hundred fifty thousand persons as of the most recent federal decennial census fails
14 to sell for the minimum required bid in the tax sale, the collector may offer the
15 property for sale at a subsequent sale with no minimum required bid. The proceeds
16 of the sale shall be applied to the taxes, interest, and costs due on the property, and
17 any remaining deficiency shall be eliminated from the tax rolls.
18 (B) Redemption. (1) The property sold shall be redeemable for three years
19 after the date of recordation of the tax sale, by paying the price given, including
20 costs, five percent penalty thereon, and interest at the rate of one percent per month
21 until redemption.
22 (2) In the city of New Orleans, when such property sold is residential or
23 commercial property which is abandoned property as defined by R.S. 33:4720.12(1)
24 or blighted property as defined by Act 155 of the 1984 Regular Session, it shall be
25 redeemable for eighteen months after the date of recordation of the tax sale by
26 payment in accordance with Subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph.
27 (3) In any parish other than Orleans, when such property sold is vacant
28 residential or commercial property which has been declared blighted, as defined by
29 R.S. 33:1374(B)(1) on January 1, 2013, or abandoned, as defined by R.S.
30 33:4720.59(D)(2) on January 1, 2013, it shall be redeemable for eighteen months
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1 after the date of recordation of the tax sale by payment in accordance with
2 Subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph.
3 (C) Annulment. No sale of property for taxes shall be set aside for any cause,
4 except on proof of payment of the taxes prior to the date of the sale, unless the
5 proceeding to annul is instituted within six months after service of notice of sale. A
6 notice of sale shall not be served until the final day for redemption has ended. It must
7 be served within five years after the date of the recordation of the tax deed if no
8 notice is given. The fact that taxes were paid on a part of the property sold prior to
9 the sale thereof, or that a part of the property was not subject to taxation, shall not
10 be cause for annulling the sale of any part thereof on which the taxes for which it
11 was sold were due and unpaid. No judgment annulling a tax sale shall have effect
12 until the price and all taxes and costs are paid, and until ten percent per annum
13 interest on the amount of the price and taxes paid from date of respective payments
14 are paid to the purchaser; however, this shall not apply to sales annulled because the
15 taxes were paid prior to the date of sale.
16 (D) Quieting Tax Title. The manner of notice and form of proceeding to quiet
17 tax titles shall be provided by law.
18 (E)(B) Movables; Tax Sales. When taxes on movables are delinquent, the tax
19 collector shall seize and sell sufficient movable property of the delinquent taxpayer
20 to pay the tax, whether or not the property seized is the property which was assessed.
21 Sale of the property shall be at public auction, without appraisement, after ten days
22 advertisement, published within ten days after date of seizure. It shall be absolute
23 and without redemption.
24 If the tax collector can find no corporeal movables of the delinquent to seize,
25 he may levy on incorporeal rights, by notifying the debtor thereof, or he may proceed
26 by summary rule in the courts to compel the delinquent to deliver for sale property
27 in his possession or under his control.
28 (F)(C) Postponement of Taxes. The legislature may postpone the payment
29 of taxes, but only in cases of an emergency declared by the governor or a parish
30 president pursuant to the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency
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1 Assistance and Disaster Act, overflow, general conflagration, general crop
2 destruction, or other public calamity, and may provide for the levying, assessing, and
3 collecting of such postponed taxes. In such case, the legislature may authorize the
4 borrowing of money by the state on its faith and credit, by bond issue or otherwise,
5 and may levy taxes, or apply taxes already levied and not appropriated, to secure
6 payment thereof, in order to create a fund from which loans may be made through
7 the Interim Emergency Board to the governing authority of the parish where the
8 calamity occurs taxes are postponed. The money loaned shall be applied to and
9 shall not exceed the deficiency in revenue of the parish or a political subdivision
10 therein or of which the parish is a part, caused by postponement of taxes. No loan
11 shall be made to a parish governing authority without the approval of the Interim
12 Emergency Board.
13 Section 2. Be it further resolved that the provisions of the amendment contained in
14 this Joint Resolution shall become effective January 1, 2026.
15 Section 3. Be it further resolved that if a proposed amendment to Article VII, Section
16 25 of the Constitution of Louisiana which authorizes liens and privileges on immovable
17 property for nonpayment of taxes is adopted at a statewide election prior to December 7,
18 2024, then the amendment to the constitution proposed in this Joint Resolution is hereby
19 withdrawn, and the secretary of state is hereby ordered not to include this proposed
20 amendment on the ballot on December 7, 2024.
21 Section 4. Be it further resolved that this proposed amendment shall be submitted to
22 the electors of the state of Louisiana at the statewide election to be held on December 7,
23 2024.
24 Section 5. Be it further resolved that on the official ballot to be used at said election
25 there shall be printed a proposition, upon which the electors of the state shall be permitted
26 to vote YES or NO, to amend the Constitution of Louisiana, which proposition shall read as
27 follows:
28 Do you support an amendment to eliminate mandatory tax sales for
29 nonpayment of property taxes and require the legislature to provide for such
30 procedures by law; to limit the amount of penalty and interest on delinquent property
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1 taxes; and to provide for the postponement of property tax payments under certain
2 circumstances?
3 (Amends Article VII, Section 25)
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APPROVED:
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