Lafourche voters OK sales tax hike, property tax reduction

Voters in Lafourche Parish decided on May 2 to allow the school district to redistribute four property tax mills and to raise sales taxes by a quarter of a penny for flood protection.

Municipal elections were held in 28 parishes across Louisiana. Lafourche Parish constituents were asked whether or not raise sales taxes north of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway dedicated to North Lafourche Conservation, Levee and Drainage District flood protection projects.

“The increase was needed to try to stay ahead of the drainage and flood protection issues we had in our district,” said Dwayne Bourgeois, executive director of the North Lafourche Conservation, Levee and Drainage District. “The Gulf keeps getting closer and we didn’t feel we were keeping up with things.”

Bourgeois said flooding has become more of an issue in the northern part of the parish, apparent in flooding after Hurricane Isaac in 2012. He said the increase in sales tax will allow the NLCLDD to apply for bonds with the Louisiana State Bond Commission to pay for over 30 high priority flood abatement projects.

Also on the ballot was property tax increase of four mills, amounting to about $3.2 million per year, to be moved from bond repayment to safety and security in Lafourche Parish public schools.

The school district will now decrease the number of mills dedicated to their debt service fund from 15.2 mills to 11.2.

A report issued earlier this year from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor had pointed out that the district’s debt service fund – money set aside to pay for bonds they have issued – was more than the law allows it to be.

After the election is over and the mills are rededicated it will not be a tax increase, said bond attorney Hugh Martin.

“We haven’t increased our millage since 1979,” said Floyd Benoit, spokesman for LPSD. “Now we’ve had an increase in the money we’ve collected because property values have gone up.”

According to Lafourche Parish Deputy Registrar of Voters Tammy Wendelschaefer, of the 56,382 total registered voters, 3,564 voted, representing 6.32 percent voted on the school district millage.

Wendelschaefer said 3,041 out of the 44,104 registered voters in the NLCLDD voted on the sales tax increase, representing 6.9 percent of the electorate.

“Historically, it’s a better turnout. Normally you’ll get maybe four or five percent,” Wendelschaefer said. “When there [are] candidates there’s a lot higher percentage.”