A proposal for a new half-cent sales tax for public safety will be back before the Lafayette, La., City-Parish Council after members last month put off taking action on the measure.
The Advocate reports the proposal calls for an April 21 tax election, but city-parish officials were unsure whether legal deadlines could still be met for putting a tax proposal on the April ballot, even if the council approved it.
“I think it’s just going to die,” said Council Chairman Jared Bellard, who said he does not plan to support the measure.
Several council members have questioned moving forward with a sales tax proposal at this time, and Bellard said discussions next week could explore other funding options for public safety.
Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux said that he would like to consider an alternative proposal to nix the sales tax and ask voters instead to increase property taxes that are already in place for public safety.
Boudreaux said the proposed sales tax would generate more revenue than is needed and that voters might be more inclined to embrace a modest rise in property taxes.
The council and City-Parish President Joey Durel’s administration have been discussing the need for more public safety dollars since last month, when Lafayette Fire Chief Robert Benoit made a plea for additional resources to build and staff two new fire stations to keep pace with the city’s growth.
The administration has argued that those improvements — as well as needs for more police officers — will not likely happen without new tax revenue or cuts in other areas of an already tight budget.
Bellard said he wants to make sure the money cannot be found elsewhere, either though cuts, grants to hire firefighters or a combination of both.
The council chairman also said that city-parish government could pursue a scaled-back plan for public safety improvements that the budget can withstand.
Bellard said the meeting will be an opportunity “to open the discussion of what we need … just to see where we are and how we want to move forward.”
The proposal on the table would let city of Lafayette voters decide on a new half-cent sales tax for public safety with the understanding that two existing fire and police property taxes would expire if voters approved the sales tax.
The plan would bring a net annual revenue increase of about $10 million — gaining $16 million a year from the sales tax while losing $6 million from the expiring property taxes.
The tax swap was among a handful of ideas that the Durel administration had suggested to address public safety needs.
All of the ideas involve some form of new tax revenue or cuts to other areas of the budget.
Boudreaux said he believes there is a need for more revenue but that city-parish government should focus on very specific public safety goals and ask voters for only enough to meet those goals.
Topics Louisiana
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