A.  There shall be a fund for the payment of the salaries and allowances of the assessors, and all recipients of taxes, whether state, parish, school, levee, drainage, or others, shall contribute their full proportion of the total due in accordance with the amount of taxes to be received by each.  The pro rata due the assessor’s salary and expense allowance, except exempted municipalities, shall be remitted directly to the assessor by the sheriff and ex officio tax collector from the first tax collections when the tax rolls are filed each year, and prorated among the state, parish, school, levee, drainage, and other recipients of taxes in proportion to the amount of taxes to be received by each.

B.  In all cases where towns or cities are exempted by law, in whole or in part from the payment of parish taxes, such towns or cities shall pay to the assessor their proportionate share of the salary and expenses of the assessor, based upon the taxes such towns and cities would have paid into the parish treasury had they not been so exempted.

C.  The assessors shall render to the legislative auditor sworn statements showing the total amount of taxes assessed for account of the state, parish, school, road, drainage, levee, and all other purposes, also showing the portion thereof that may be appropriated to be due upon his salary and expenses by each recipient.  A copy of the report, certified by the legislative auditor, shall also be filed with the sheriff and ex officio tax collector, and a copy of the certified report shall be filed with the tax collectors of the exempted municipalities.

D.  The pro rata due the assessor’s salary and expense allowance by the various tax recipients, except exempted municipalities, as shown by the compensation statement, shall be paid directly to the assessor by the sheriff and tax collector from the first tax collections.  The pro rata due by each exempted municipality, as shown by the compensation statement, shall be paid by the municipality directly to the assessor.

E.(1)  The governing authority of the parish and the parish school board shall advance to the assessor’s salary and expense fund such funds as may be necessary in proportion to the amount of taxes levied by each for all purposes, as shown by the last completed and filed tax roll, inclusive of all special taxes levied by road and school districts, which advances so made shall be reimbursed without interest to the governing authority and parish school board by the assessor’s salary and expense fund when the compensation provided for is paid to the assessor by the parish sheriff and ex officio tax collector and the exempted municipalities.

(2)  However, in the parish of Caldwell, when the assessor finds that the governing authority of the parish or the parish school board, or both, are unable to advance such funds because of financial constraints, the assessor is hereby authorized to borrow money from a bank or other lending institution as may be necessary.

(3)  The assessor of Sabine Parish is further authorized to borrow an amount necessary to complete the task of reappraisal and reassessment in his parish for the 1988 tax roll and to contract with all tax recipient bodies to share equally in the cost of such reappraisal and the repayment of said loan.  The lending institution shall be a fiscal agency of the parish as provided for in Parts I and II of Chapter 7 of Subtitle II of Title 39 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950.  The interest rate shall not exceed seven percent per annum and the term of the loan shall not exceed four years.  The assessor shall demonstrate the need for the amount of the loan, not to exceed sixty thousand dollars, and it shall be repaid by him from an additional expense allowance granted in each of the fiscal years commencing in the 1987-1988 Fiscal Year and concluding in the 1990-1991 Fiscal Year.  These additional funds shall be paid to the assessor on a pro rata basis, and all recipients of taxes, whether parish, school, municipality, levee, drainage, or others, shall contribute their full proportion of the total due in accordance with the amount of taxes to be received by each.  All funds collected by the assessor under the provisions of this Paragraph shall be used exclusively to repay the outstanding loan authorized herein.

F.  The advance payments required by Subsection E shall be paid not later than January thirty-first in the parish of East Baton Rouge.

Amended by Acts 1954, No. 478, §1; Acts 1968, No. 429, §1; Acts 1984, No. 127, §1; Acts 1987, No. 811, §1; Acts 2006, No. 622, §8, eff. Dec. 11, 2006.