Police Jury exec explains purpose for Amend. No. 2

Dear Editor,

On Nov. 2, Louisiana citizens can vote for an amendment that will not raise taxes and may bring home dollars to improve local roads and bridges. Amendment No. 2 provides such an opportunity.

Currently, the Louisiana State Constitution requires companies that sever oil and gas from the ground to pay a tax to do so. The state receives 80 percent and the parish from which it was severed receives 20 percent of the company paid taxes.

Due to the current CAP of $850,000 on parish distribution plus an allowance for the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the 2009 split was approximately 95 percent state and 5 percent parishes.

The 2009 State Legislature passed a bill by unanimous vote that would allow each citizen to have say in bringing a “fair share” distribution of that company paid tax pay back home for local roads, bridges and services. That bill is Amendment No. 2. It would raise the current CAP to $2.85 million per parish with the state still receiving 100 percent of its share.

The current Parish Transportation Fund (PTF) that provides state funds to parishes to address local road and bridge projects was reduced in 2000 by $12.3 million.

Those reductions have stayed in place in whole or in part since 2000 bringing a total reduction to parish bridge and road projects to approximately $114 million. Amendment No. 2 attempts to address that 11-year reduction by requiring that 50 percent any new dollars received by each parish go directly to road and bridge type projects.

A safeguard for state revenues was placed in Amendment No. 2 language. It basically states that the parishes will not receive a dollar more until the state collection of the current tax is more than it has ever been (approximately $897 million actually collected in fiscal year 2008-09).

Amendment No. 2 was written to not raise taxes, safeguard state revenues, address local road and bridge projects and provide that a “fair share” distribution be set forth in our State Constitution. Please urge your readers to support this important amendment that allows parishes to keep more severance tax dollars without negatively impacting the state’s general fund!

Roland Dartez,

Executive Director,

Police Jury Association of Louisiana