Abita Springs Mayor Louis Fitzmorris is growing impatient waiting for the assessor’s office to provide projected tax revenue numbers for his town.

For the second month in a row, the town’s Board of Aldermen was forced Tuesday evening to table a resolution setting millage rates after the assessor’s office failed to provide it with the information necessary.

“We were supposed to receive the preliminary numbers in June, but here we are in October, and we still don’t have the numbers,” Fitzmorris told the board. The assessor’s office has been inundated with a staggering number of appeals this year and is delayed in getting figures to the appropriate taxing bodies.

Fitzmorris said he just wants a date from the assessor’s office as to when he can expect those figures, but he can’t even get that.

“I have made numerous calls and e-mails with no response,” a frustrated Fitzmorris said.

The town has to adopt it budget next month, and he said preparing a budget without knowing how much money the town will receive from property tax revenue would be a waste of time.

But that is just what he feels he will have to do unless he receives some sort of estimate soon.

Fitzmorris said he would prepare the budget using the 2007 numbers, which he predicts will be drastically different than the 2008 numbers.

However, he said, the estimates are not always as reliable as they should be due to the large number of appeals granted after the numbers are given to the taxing bodies.

Last year, Fitzmorris said, the figures changed 10 percent, and the budget had to be adjusted accordingly anyway.

“But there are so many appeals this year we are looking at maybe a 20-30 percent difference,” he said.

And with the delay in getting the numbers, Fitzmorris also fears there will be a delay in the checks being sent out.

“We have bond payments due in March,” he said. “And I don’t’ know if we will have the money by then to pay them.”

By law, the town can only collect enough money needed to make the bond payments. Therefore, if revenue is up due to increased property values or population, the town must roll back the millages it collects or go to the voters, as it did in 2004, and request permission to sell more bonds.