Terrebonne educators hope sales tax passes

The signs sprang up like dandelions last year, making clear that a lot of people in Terrebonne Parish would not easily be sold on a millage increase to raise money for the schools.

This year things are different.

The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce, with the help of various community leaders – and the strongest opponent of the tax proposed and defeated by voters last year – is now a major cheerleader for a new proposal, a half-cent sales tax dedicated to raising salaries of teachers and other employees.

Voters will decide the matter Dec. 6, and so far little opposition is evident.

“It is a very important issue, but it is a simple one,” said Schools Superintendent Phillip Martin in an interview last week. “It is a half cent sales tax, 100 percent related to salaries. A task force convened for well over a year and studied the situation in detail. We brought the information to them. We brought them whatever they asked.”

The current sales tax in Terrebonne stands at 9 percent, with two cents out of that going toward the school district. If voters allow the ½-cent tax addition, the school system will take in an extra $12 million annually, money Martin said is desperately needed to retain good teachers and hire more.

“We are losing one teacher now who teaches an advanced math course,” Martin said. “With what we are able to pay, it will be difficult to find a suitable replacement.”

It’s a case-in-point, Martin explains, of the dilemma his schools are in. Teachers have made a positive difference as indicated by statewide school rankings. But dspite the high achievement numbers, Martin and other tax supporters note, Terrebonne teacher salaries are down near the bottom of the list.

With pressing infrastructure needs and expense increases in other areas, Martin maintains, a consistent salary-raising program is not possible without more taxpayer participation.

While opposition to the tax hike is not broad-based, some does exist.

Gerald Michel, a former teacher in the Terrebonne system who has worked in Lafourche, some other parishes and at Vandebilt High School, has waged a campaign of opposition through guest newspaper columns.

A statistic widely circulated by supporters of the tax that Terrebonne schools are ranked 18th out of 74 school systems in Louisiana, but are on the bottom of the list for per-student spending, should give pause for thought, Michel maintains.

“They are doing more with less,” he said. “Isn’t this what we want?”

The problem, according to Michel, is not money but management.

“If they would know how to manage their budget people could get raises,” Michel said. Teachers already get step raises, he maintains. And while there has not been an across the board hike, teachers are therefore not suffering.

The administration differs on several points.

The overall pay scale, the ability to factor in higher salaries overall into an annual budget, Martin and other supporters say, is what makes for difficulty attracting better teachers, who would prefer making more money in districts that have put a premium on higher salaries.

“Although the Terrebonne Parish Public Schools District ranks among the top third of all districts in Louisiana in terms of student achievement, and is one of the largest school districts in the state, we pay our teachers in the bottom third – 49th out of 69 school districts to be exact,” Martin said. “Not only are we on the bottom of the state in compensation, we also significantly trail neighboring parishes that are an hour or less commute from Terrebonne. Add to this the demand for quality personnel not only within education, but also within private industry that an economy like ours creates, and you can see how compensation rises to the top of the challenges within our school system … With this tax, we will begin to have the resources to retain the teachers and employees who make a difference in the lives of the 18,000 students who come to our schools each day, and to attract new teachers into the profession and into our parish. Most would agree that without this tax, Terrebonne Parish will face challenges in staffing our schools with the educators that you expect and that we demand.”

The school system is taking a two-pronged approach to getting its message out. A political action committee called Citizens for Terrebonne’s Future has been established. Its report to the Louisiana Board of Ethics shows an initial $300 capitalization, with $100 of that spent for filing fees.

Additional money has been coming in to the PAC, but filings have not yet been scanned for public view by the Ethics Board.

Michel has raised questions about signs that appeared on school system campuses. Martin said those signs, according to the District’s legal counsel, were permissible because they solely contain information about the tax and do not urge voters to vote for it. Nonetheless, Martin said, those signs have for the most part been removed “out of an abundance of caution.”

The Terrebonne Parish Public Schools Community Task Force, after meetings throughout the year, developed a strategy and makes the case for the sales task. Business leaders who worked on the task force included those who opposed last year’s attempt at a millage increase as the way to go, at the time arguing that a property tax increase would unfairly affect businesses.

The sales tax, the task force concludes, falls more fairly on the shoulders of the entire community.

The need is demonstrated in a report issued by the Task Force, stating that from 2008 through 2013, “revenues from local sources (2.08 percent sales tax and 9.27 mills property tax) increased by $2.8 million, and state revenues decreased by $9 million, resulting in a $6.2 million net decrease in state and local funding during that time period.”

Faced with a loss of state revenue sources and increased expenses over the last five years, including spikes in mandated employer contributions to state retirement programs, the Terrebonne Parish School District has implemented cost-cutting measures, the report notes, including staff reduction by 20 percent, a freeze on pay raises lasting five years, and closure of schools.

“Teachers in our system have not had a standard salary increase in seven years, and with our bustling economy, are leaving for school systems in neighboring parishes, as well as for better-paying job opportunities outside of the education system. The District reached a high of 60 vacant teaching positions this school year,” the report states. “Living in one of the most vibrant economies and communities in Louisiana and this nation, Terrebonne Parish students deserve a school system that is equally vibrant and that successfully prepares them for the job opportunities offered by our productive business community. Research confirms that the critical factor for student achievement and success is having qualified teachers in every classroom. Competitive salaries will help our community retain and attract qualified educators, thereby reducing student/teacher ratio, and providing an improved learning environment for our students and greater opportunity for their academic success.”

Early voting on the tax issue – as well as other items on the Dec. 6 ballot – continued through Wednesday. On Thanksgiving Day and the day after – early voting was closed, but scheduled to resume Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Polls will be open Dec. 6 for regular voting from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Terrebonne Parish voters will decide whether to impose a half-cent sales tax hike to give teachers a raise on Dec. 6.

MICHAEL HOTARD | THE TIMES