VIDALIA, La. – Property taxes are going up slightly in Concordia Parish this year — but, for the owners of a $90,000 house, doing without a restaurant dinner for two should offset the increase.

Property taxes throughout the parish are going up 1.74 mills this year, now that a tax that voters passed last year for library operations is taking effect. A mill equals one-tenth of every cent of a property’s assessed value.

So depending on where a person lives – towns and recreation and fire districts levy their own taxes in addition to the parish’s — his property taxes will rise 1.80 to 2.23 percent over last year.

&uot;I&160;don’t know how that compares with Natchez or with other parishes across the state,&uot;&160;said Louise Alexander, who has lived on Vidalia’s Oak Street for more than 40 years. &uot;But for people like me who are on a fixed income, an increase isn’t good news.&uot;

But there is some good news: For the owner of the $90,000 house, those extra mills would only amount to just more than $26 a year.

According to last year’s figures — the most recent available from the Louisiana Tax Commission — Concordia Parish’s average property tax rate, then 84.04 mills, was far below the state average of 107.30 mills. Even with this year’s rise, its millage is below Adams County’s rate of 97.42 mills.

And in Louisiana, only properties valued at more than $75,000 are taxed at all. That means that almost half of Concordia Parish’s 12,811 taxpayers are exempt from property taxes, said Tax Assessor Monelle Moseley.

&uot;That’s the thing — it won’t effect a lot of people over here because they have a homestead exemption,&uot;&160;said Dianne Spillers, a Ferriday real estate broker.

&uot;But for people who do own significant amounts of property, like me, property taxes can amount to a lot.&uot;