Lafourche voters to decide on school rededication of cash

The Lafourche Parish School District has too much money in the bank.

Sort of.

They want the extra to be used for added security at schools. But for that to happen, voter approval is required.

A report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor states that the district’s debt service fund – money set aside to pay for bonds they have issued – is more than the law allows it to be.

School officials say the reason for the discrepancy is that increased property values have resulted in more money than is needed being deposited into the account used for debt service.

The district collects a total of 43.3 mills from property taxes yearly, said Don Gaudet, fiscal officer for the school district.

Of those, 15.2 mills are dedicated to paying back bond debt. The district, school district officials say, at this point only needs 11.2 mills because property values have gone up.

The district will ask voters during the May 2 general election to allow four mills, amounting to $3.2 million per year, to be moved from bond repayment to safety and security.

“It will not be a tax increase when all of this happens,” said bond attorney Hugh Martin.

It will take about two years for the debt service fund to drop to the required amount, Gaudet said.

Gaudet said that in addition to rising property values, excess is also due to district re-financing of the bonds at lower interests rates.

The total taxable property value of the parish has more than doubled from $435 million in 2004 to $896 million in 2014.

If approved, officials said, the money would be used to add security cameras, alarm systems and additional resource officers at schools.

“Students and teachers need to feel safe and secure so that students can get the learning experience that they need to be productive citizens,” Gaudet said. “We are fortunate to have a tax structure that will allow the School Board to find a permanent source of funding so that we can finance long-term solutions to safety and security issues. It would be irresponsible for the Board not to try to secure a permanent funding solution.”

The legislative audit also pointed out that the school board’s child nutrition program uses a separate financial reporting software system than the rest of the school board, which could lead to inefficiencies and the misstatement of financial information.

Gaudet said the reason was that a couple of years ago the school board was converting to a new accounting system. They decided to allow the child nutrition department to continue to use the previous system because it was tailored to the department’s purpose and it was not as big a priority as converting the rest of their departments to the new system.

Gaudet said they are currently working with the child nutrition department to switch over to the new software.