New Orleans City Council members, worried over the effect of skyrocketing assessments across the city, suggested Monday they are open to efforts that would rein in higher property taxes on residents.

The council's concerns came as Together New Orleans, an umbrella organization for various religious and civic groups, presented a report showing a likely substantial impact from this year's reassessment and calling for changes to how the Orleans Parish Assessor's Office operates.

Thousands of property owners have seen the assessed value of their parcels jump this year, leading to property taxes that are set to rise by hundreds or thousands of dollars for some residents.

"These numbers are going to represent several thousand people moving out of the city of New Orleans because they can’t afford to live here," Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer said at a morning council meeting on taxes and other revenue sources. "If we don’t have people living in our neighborhoods, we close up shop."

Together New Orleans estimated that almost 2,000 households will see their taxes go up by more than $1,000 next year. And because of a recent state constitutional amendment that phases in the higher taxes on assessments that increase a property’s value by more than 50%, nearly 5,200 will have a total increase of more than $1,000 in the next four years due to this year's citywide reassessment.

Some neighborhoods will see tax increases that represent more than 4% of the average median income of the residents living there, Together New Orleans said.

“When you add all that together, there’s no way folks can continue to live here even if they make a decent wage,” the Rev. Joe Connelly, a member of the group, told the council.

On Monday afternoon, Assessor Erroll Williams defended his office's reassessment as a good faith effort to describe the conditions of the current real estate market.

"The challenge for us is we're trying to get (each property's assessed value) into the ballpark," Williams said.

About 7,500 people stopped by the Assessor's Office since the reassessments were sent out, many to contest their new property values. Another 6,700 have filed online appeals that go to the City Council.

Ultimately, how much taxes will increase for New Orleans property owners will depend on how the council and other taxing authorities, including the Orleans Parish School Board and the regional flood protection authorities, react to the increased assessments.

Under state law, the reassessment automatically triggers a "roll back" that lowers tax rates to the point where those agencies would reap no increase in their revenue. However, the various local governments can then decide to "roll forward" the rates, bringing them partially or all the way back up to where they are now, so as to take advantage of the higher assessments.

Members of Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration have not specifically said what they plan to ask the council to do. But they've argued that city services are underfunded and more money could be put to good use. The administration has also pushed for a new, 3-mill tax to be placed before voters on the November ballot.

Council members seemed Monday to be wary of raising the amount of taxes that residents must pay.

"What is the best way we could find relief for some people?" Councilwoman Helena Moreno asked. During the meeting, she suggested going a step further than the overall rollback and instructing the city's Finance Department to charge residents only the equivalent of this year's city taxes, no matter how much their assessment has changed.

Property values are surging in New Orleans. This map shows where. The Orleans Parish Assessor's Office this year raised the assessed value of nearly 69,000 properties in New Orleans, some of them dramatically…

The Together New Orleans report found several problems with this year’s reassessment and the way Williams handles the tax rolls overall.

The report said that properties assessed below $200,000 are, on average, valued at 20% higher than the average nearby sales prices, while higher-valued parcels tend to be assessed at below the average sales prices.

That could in part reflect the fact that many high-priced areas of Uptown were among the portions of the city the assessor did not revalue this year. Williams has said his office ran out of time before he could re-evaluate those 40,000 properties and they will be reassessed next year.

"The fact that wasn’t equitably done through all districts, I would think legally there could be some challenges done, and they would be successful," Councilman Jason Williams said.

Almost a quarter of New Orleans properties missed by citywide reassessment, at least for now This year is the first time in recent history the Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office has undertaken what has been billed as a reassessment aimed…

Together New Orleans also is calling for the Assessor’s Office to change the way it values properties. Currently, the office reflects higher property values largely by increasing the value of buildings, with lesser increases to the value of the land they sit on.

That process undervalues land, the group argues, essentially giving favorable tax treatment to vacant parcels and parking lots compared to buildings.

A key criticism leveled by the group is not directly related to the reassessment. It says about $155 million worth of properties are listed by the Assessor’s Office as tax-exempt even though the agreements they signed to get those exemptions have expired. Those properties would bring in about $10.5 million in taxes for local governments if they were put back on the rolls, the group said.

The assessor said Monday afternoon that all the exemptions in his records are current.

A larger issue is the significant number of properties in the city that pay no taxes because they are owned by nonprofit organizations including churches and universities. Figuring out a way to get those properties to pay some money to the city has been long discussed but with little result.

"While that is something that many people don’t want to discuss, at some point we’re going to have to come to grips and deal with that because the more people carrying the load, the lighter the load is to carry," Councilman Jay H. Banks said.