Chamber hears storm protection tax pitch

It is difficult to find a member of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce unfamiliar with the term Morganza to the Gulf. It is also a task to find any among that group who do not know Reggie Dupre.

So, it came as no surprise last Tuesday, when the former state senator and current executive director for the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District made his pitch for public support of a 1/2 cent sales tax. The measure will go before Terrebonne Parish voters Dec. 8, and is intended to generate funds for completion of the coastal hurricane storm surge protection system.

“The cavalry ain’t coming,” Dupre told approximately 145 business and government leaders regarding a lost confidence in ever gaining federal assistance to build the nearly 90 miles of levees and floodgates that locals have been planning and constructing for nearly 20 years.

With a1/4 cent sales tax approved by Terrebonne Parish voters in 2001, and matching state funds since then, approximately 42 miles of levees have been or are in the process of being completed. Additionally, nine flood gates are operational and credited with reducing surge levels and flooding during Hurricane Isaac in August.

A new sales tax, Dupre old his listeners, would be dedicated to completion of 48 miles of levees and three additional floodgates.

The estimated $190 million generated from the proposed tax would be dedicated to construction only and collections would end after 28 years. During the taxing period 25 year bonds would be sold to support the endeavor during a three year window.

New tax revenue would be additional to an already appropriated $34 million in state funds for storm and land loss protection.

In a PowerPoint presentation, Dupre presented photos, maps, data and illustrations to make his case for additional public funding. He told chamber members the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had repeatedly disappointed locals with a lack of progress and bureaucratic red tape.

“This is the first time the Terrebonne Levee District has put a tax issue on the ballot,” Dupre said. The existing 1/4 cent sales tax was presented by the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government.

“I know we all get tired of hearing about a potential doomsday, but that’s the fact,” Morganza Action Coalition Chairwoman and Coastal Commerce Bank Commercial Lending Vice President Sharon Bergeron said. “We have an urgent command to build a levee protection that will protect us for generations to come.”

Chamber President Billy Foster said that while this organization is not ready to make an official endorsement of the proposed half-cent sales tax, the group seems to be leaning that direction. The Chamber has been conducting a survey of its members. Foster said approximately 10 percent of the questionnaires have been returned with nearly 85 percent of respondents supporting the tax.

“The leadership is in favor of this, but we feel like we need to do due diligence with our membership,” Foster said.

“A lot of people don’t realize how close we are to the water,” said former Terrebonne Parish Clerk of Court Bobby Boudreaux. “We need protection.”

“I’m definitely going to vote for it,” Tauzin Retirement Solutions President David Tauzin said. “We have a lot of privileges here and it is something everybody should support.”

“One major storm and our economy is demolished,” Dupre said while reminding chamber members that it was they who helped pass the existing levee construction tax. “We need to protect our economy from downtown [Houma] to down the bayou.”

Terrebonne Parish taxpayers were asked in 2006 to add an additional one-cent sales tax to the effort. That measure failed by 123 ballots.