NEW ORLEANS – A contender for the mayor of the City of Port Allen has appealed his disqualification to Louisiana’s highest court. Two lower courts have ruled that Lance C. Joseph, an attorney and Port Allen chief administrative officer, should not be on the November mayoral ballot.
Candidates are required to live in the municipality they seek to represent for at least a year before entering the race in order to run for mayor in Louisiana, per state statute.
Judge Tonya Lurry, of the 18th Judicial District Court in West Baton Rouge Parish, determined Joseph should be removed from the ballot last week for accepting tax breaks designated for someone’s primary residence.
“My decision was based on the language in the notice of candidacy qualifying form, which is why I put emphasis on the homestead exemption in my decision,” said Judge Lurry during the hearing. “A person receives significant financial benefits through the homestead exemption. He has been receiving these benefits for 12 years, more than a decade. That was an overwhelming factor for me to consider.”
The Appeal Court did not find the district court erred and doubled-down on Wednesday with a ruling that said Joseph does not reside in Port Allen.
Hope Harper, Joseph’s attorney, wrote in a legal brief filed with the Louisiana Supreme Court and reviewed by UWK that he has consistently lived in his childhood home. He registered to vote there, listed the address on his driver’s license and included that address when he purchased multiple cars.
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Harper wrote that Joseph never actually claimed the homestead exemption but that it was granted without his consent and belongs to his wife. Lance C. Joseph is the sole owner of the Plaquemine property, according to property records.
Joseph said the homestead exemption was the result of an error in assessor records in a July interview with UWK.
“I didn’t indicate that,” he said. “I didn’t submit any documentation or file any records within any jurisdiction designating that as my homestead. They did that automatically. When I tried to remove it, they refused to remove it.”
Joseph said he did not have any emails or records of outreach to try to correct an alleged inaccuracy.
The Iberville Parish Assessor’s office gave Joseph a tax break to a Plaquemine home for years that Joseph owns with his wife. The Louisiana Tax Commission stated that the homestead tax break can only apply to one property per person, which must be their primary residence.
Joseph indicated he has “0%” of primary ownership in Port Allen, according to West Baton Rouge Parish tax documents. Instead, Joseph indicated on Iberville Parish Assessor records that his home on Island Drive is “100%” his primary residence.
Randy Sexton, the Iberville Parish assessor, wrote in a letter included in the initial lawsuit brought against Joseph that his office has applied a homestead exemption on Joseph’s home since January 2012 and that “yearly” notices were mailed showing a “homestead was applied.”
Joseph received up to $90,000 in tax breaks from 12 years of the Iberville homestead tax exemption.
Judge Lurry emphasized that election laws are designed to ensure a broad selection of qualified candidates. While the defense provided evidence proving “domicile,” the focus was on the homestead exemption. Whether Joseph intentionally applied for it or not, Lurry noted that he had benefited from it for 12 years and should have known better.
“As an attorney licensed to practice law in this state, this court must believe that he would be aware of not only the avenue to correct this error but also the possible criminal implications that could result from a person receiving such benefit if they were not truly entitled to it,” Lurry wrote in her ruling.
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