Levee sales tax passes by wide margin in South Lafourche

With federal funding for levee improvements still uncertain, voters in the 10th Ward of Lafourche Parish overwhelmingly approved a one-cent sales tax to ensure the work gets done.

Monies generated from the sales tax hike will be used to upgrade the 44-mile ring levee that encircles the community of South Lafourche.

The tax passed last Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, 4,650 votes or 82 percent for and only 1,004 or 18 percent against. The one-cent tax will bolster the property tax the South Lafourche Levee District currently receives.

In all, the South Lafourche Levee District collects $2.5 million annually from a 9.86 mill property tax, according to district General Manager Windell Curole. That money is used to operate and maintain the levee system, he said.

The one-cent sales tax is expected to generate an additional $4.5 million annually. The monies are needed, Curole said, to provide a higher level of protection for area residents. “We can’t guarantee that you won’t flood, but this money will help to provide greater protection to reduce the chances of a flood event,” he said.

The additional funds come at a time of great importance to the levee district, according to the district’s general manager.

While the levee has proven to be a significant and effective barrier to the storm surge and corrosive water that tropical systems bring, recent storms such as Hurricane Rita showed the system’s potential vulnerability if it is not raised to higher levels.

According to Curole, levee officials waited “as long as we could” before asking Lafourche taxpayers for additional money to improve the system.

“The people of South Lafourche have always been willing to pay to get the protection they need and deserve. They are good people who know the levee district will not waste their tax dollars.”

Curole acknowledged that the storm surge from Hurrican Rita, a storm that made landfall near the Texas border, almost caused overtopping of the South Lafourche levee. “It was very close,” and made clear the need for improvements to the system.

The general manager said plans are in the works to raise the height of the levee. Originally designed to a height of 12 to 13 feet on the southern end below the town limits of Golden Meadow and 10 feet on its northern periphery in Larose, the levee system has undergone a slow subsidence over the last three decades.

This subsidence, verified in recent elevation studies by various federal agencies, indicates that portions of the levee system have subsided as much as 30 inches.

Curole said the initial portion of the sales tax money will be spent to fix the subsidence problems to bring the entire system back to its original design grade. “We need to address the weak spots first in order to bring the entire system back to its original protective height,” he said.

A significant portion of the levee system has fallen below its original design grade, a reflection of the land platform sinking, which all of south Louisiana faces each year, the general manager said.

Once the design heights are corrected, Curole said the district’s second task will be to elevate the entire 44-mile system to a uniform height of at least 12 to 13 feet. That is the current design for the southern segments of the system, he noted. “We will go higher if we can afford to,” Curole said.

Because construction costs have risen exponentially after 2005’s hurricanes, the total expense is difficult to budget, he said. “We’ve been forced to reject some bids on work because of the costs and have had to rebid them to get a more favorable price,” he noted.