NLLD asks residents for 1/4 cent sales tax

The North Lafourche Levee District will ask voters May 2 if they would be willing to pay a quarter-cent sales tax dedicated to building levees and other flood protection projects.

The levee district’s board of commissioners approved placing the measure on the ballot at a meeting last week. The North Lafourche Levee District is responsible for protecting everything from the Intracoastal Canal to the northern edge of the parish, including more than 250 miles of levees and drainage canals and 40 pump stations. The more than 65,000 Lafourche Parish residents within this area, about two thirds of the parish population, will be eligible to vote on the measure.

The levee district’s only current funding source is an ad valorem tax that provides about $3.5 million per year. If approved, the sales tax would generate about $2.2 million per year, according to a levee district estimation.

“We have been able to complete several projects very cost-effectively in recent years with the dollars we have available, but when we consider our risk in the event of a storm or hurricane, we know that more needs to be done,” North Lafourche Levee District Executive Director Dwayne Bourgeois said in a released statement. “An additional funding source is needed to aggressively tackle this project list and build these critical levee projects as soon as possible. Additional funds will also provide the district with greater leveraging for state and federal dollars.”

Bourgeois said the district has identified about $250 million in necessary projects. Although even the approval of the sales tax wouldn’t take it close to that number, the levee district has a process of prioritizing levee, flood protection and drainage improvement projects that would benefit the residents throughout the area and would achieve a higher level of protection. Revenue from the sales tax would allow the levee district to expedite the completion of projects.

“It’s ultimately up to the voters if we want to run this thing a little faster and rounder or happy with the pace we’ve been going,” Bourgeois said at Monday’s Bayou Industrial Group luncheon on Thibodaux.

North Lafourche Levee District President Cory Kief said after determining the volume and amount of projects that need to be addressed, the levee district’s current source of monetary resources does not adequately address those issues in a timely and sensible manner.

“It is our duty as stewards of the people to propose a legitimate and reasonable course to improve upon the efforts necessary to achieve their projects district wide,” Kief said in a released statement. “The proposal that is being set forth will include participation from all of the district’s citizens as a view of investment into the region addressing issues association with their risk of flooding.”

In December of 2012, Lafourche Parish voters residing north of the Intracoastal Canal rejected a one-cent sales tax for the North Lafourche Levee District by a 54 to 46 percent tally, and only 12.7 percent of the population participated in the vote. North Lafourche Levee District representatives hope the result will be different this time.

“Our future depends on flood protection. The Association of Levee Boards in Louisiana has a saying that without flood protection nothing else matters, and that kind of hits home,” Bourgeois said.

NLLD