Ahead of first election, Iberia Parish Assessor looks back on ten months in office

Published 10:20 am Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Iberia Parish Tax Assessor Ashlie Spiker is proud of what she has accomplished in her ten months in office.

Spiker, who assumed office in January 2024 following former Assessor Taylor Barras’ appointment as Commissioner of Administration for Gov. Jeff Landry, has been working hard to prepare for and execute an important tax reassessment that will affect each resident of Iberia Parish in some way or another.

Now, as Spiker’s first-ever campaign for assessor nears its end date in November, she is finally able to look back at her performance and make plans for future improvements.

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“We have passed every audit, both the internal audit and the legislative audit, I have passed all of the tax rolls, we’ve never had an issue,” Spiker said. “I have a job to do, this isn’t just an election for me. I’m doing the Chief Deputy’s job and the Assessor’s job, so I’m doing a reevaluation by myself. That’s normally a three-man team.”

Spiker began working in the Assessor’s office in 2005, earning the title of Chief Deputy in 2021 after working on the Office’s evaluation team.

Despite the challenges that she has faced since being appointed, Spiker has made sure to keep an eye on improving the transparency of the Assessor’s office with technological improvements.

“We just paid for an app which is going to be really cool,” she said. “We’ll be able to push notifications to let people know when we’re shutting down for a hurricane or when we start our open book period.”

The improvements come as Spiker has been criticized for a lack of transparency regarding property tax increases this year. Attorney David Groner, who is also running for Assessor, has questioned why notices weren’t sent out to all property owners informing them of their new rates.

“This has a ramification of effects because when people don’t get their reassessment letter, then they don’t know how to appeal because they don’t know what their reassessment is, which means they’ve lost that right,” said Groner in an interview with KLFY.

According to Spiker, the notices are only required to be sent when a property’s value rises by 15% or more. Several citizens who have complained about not receiving notices either saw increases of a lower amount or have a freeze on their property’s assessed value. Additionally, Spiker said that there are always issues with the delivery of notices, reinforcing the importance of visiting her office in person.

“I can’t prove delivery, but I have to mail them out,” Spiker said. “I got one back today that was mailed in July of 2022 and we just got it back. That’s two and a half years later, I wasn’t even the assessor then. We get these all the time. I was one of the first assessors to post all of our updated evaluation values back in March, so I’m not hiding a thing. I’ve opened my books and advertised it twice, even extending the day to close the books because we closed one day for the hurricane.”

Iberia Parish residents will have an opportunity to vote for their candidate for Iberia Parish Assessor in the Nov. 5 election. Early voting begins on Oct 18 and ends on Oct. 29. The deadline to register online to vote or change registration is Oct. 15.

To find out more about the election and receive a sample ballot, visit voterportal.sos.la.gov or download the Geaux Vote app.