The Abbeville City Council voted 4-0 at its regular meeting Tuesday to roll forward its millage rate after recent assessments yielded an increase in property values in the city.

The city is re-evaluated every three years. A reassessment triggers the millage to roll back, allowing a municipality or other government entity to collect the same amount of revenue as the previous year. Rolling forward, which can only occur when there is an increase in property assessments, allows a municipality to bring in additional revenue, while keeping the millage rates the same.

Rolling forward the millage rates means the Abbeville will generate a slight increase in property tax revenue. The council’s vote sets the rates at the current rate of 5.32 mills for the general fund and 1.33 mills for the public improvement fund.

Rolling forward means total collection in the general fund will be $324,567.88 annually. The amount of increase in taxes attributable to the millage increase is $12,291.22. In the case of the public improvement fund, the total collections will be $81,141,97. The millage means an increase of $3,072.81.

“For a residence, it’s $2.50 per $100,000 in value,” Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza explained. “For commercial it is $3.75 per $100,000 in value. Our millages are low and it is not a lot of money. Your millages are based on 10 percent of your total value. If your house is worth $200,000, you’re taxed on $20,000. An additional .25 mills is what it equates to, because the difference in the millage rollover is a quarter of a mill. Multiple that quarter of a mill by 100,000 and that’s $2.50. The commercial millages are based on 15 percent. That’s why it’s $3.75.”

The council discussed the issue during a public hearing, per state law, before voting on the issue during the regular meeting. Councilman-at-large Francis Plaisance made a motion for the vote, with Councilman Brady Broussard Jr, District C, offering a second. Councilman Francis Touchet, District B, was absent.

Piazza said the move to roll forward is a logical one. Electing not to roll forward would have resulted in the general fund being set at 5.12 mills and the public improvement fund at 1.28.

“We are reassessed every three years,” Piazza said. “If you do not roll forward, those (5.12, 1.28) become your ceiling. So if three years from now, the assessments go down, you cannot go back up to where we are today.

“If you do not roll forward, you are stuck at the lower millage, despite what your future assessments are going to be, and that means the city could lose money.”