St. Tammany Tax Assessor Patricia Schwarz Core and Fire District 1 Chief Larry Hess had words last week over the increase in fees charged by the Assessor’s Office.

At issue is the $85,000 fee Core’s office has charged the district for placing a $39 parcel fee on the tax rolls. According to Core, FD1 administrators agreed to the fee in July, then later asked for a reduction. The fee amounts to approximately 6.5 percent of collections, generally about $1.2 million.

The Assessor’s office has performed the billing of the parcel fee as a courtesy in the past, but increased administrative costs have led her to charge for the service. “This is a lot of extra work for us, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t have to pay some sort of fee to be included on the tax roll,” said Core. “If they don’t want to pay us they should get an outside vendor to do it.”

Hess said that FD1 has never been required to pay a fee in the past. In a press release issued Friday, he called the fee “Draconian.”

“We truly don’t mind paying a reasonable fee for the Assessor to place the fee on her rolls, but her service in this regard cannot reasonably be worth $85,000 in taxpayer money,” Hess said in the statement. “It appears she has us at a distinct disadvantage.”

Also at issue is the fee that all taxing bodies in the parish are charged to support operations of Core’s office, for the purchase of furniture and other supplies. According to Hess, his district’s share of that fee has doubled, from $4,401.56 in 2009 to over $9,000 for 2010.

“How can they advocate a rollback, then double their own bill?” Hess asked.

The agency was among the few to roll forward its property tax millage in August, rolling forward to 31 mills after a mandatory roll back to 30 in the wake of last fall’s hugely inflated property tax reassessments. Hess said the new fee would cut into any cushion provided by that extra mill.

FD1 is the only fire district with a parcel fee billed by the Assessor’s Office, although there are other taxing bodies with similar fees on the rolls. Core has reportedly received only one additional complaint from another agency about the increased fees.

Chief Chuck Flynn of Fire District 3 in Lacombe said the assessor does not do any billing for his department.

“That’s not really a problem for us, but the other fees are steep,” said Flynn. “If it keeps going like this, eventually we won’t have enough to operate.”