Veteran’s, hospital initiatives OK’d

Bayou Blue voters rejected a 9.9-mill property-tax measure on Saturday that would have funded $4.2 million in improvements to the growing town’s recreation complex.

Three hundred seventy-seven of the district’s 5,345 registered voters – or 7.1 percent – showed up to the polls. Of those voters, 244, or 64.7 percent, voiced opposition to the tax, according to complete but unofficial results submitted to the Secretary of State.

“It’s horrible,” Lloyd Olin, the recreation district’s president, said of the voter turnout. Olin said on Monday, hours before a board meeting that he was unsure whether the district would pursue another tax, but he felt the district wasn’t represented by the low turnout.

The recreation district collects 4.52 mills from a tax approved in 2008. It raises roughly $100,000 a year, which district officials say isn’t enough money to rectify standing problems, much less improve the offerings.

If the measure had passed, district taxpayers with homestead-exempt property appraised at $150,000 would have seen their bill rise by $74.25.

Light poles at the complex, located on Mazerac Street, are infested with termites. Hurricane Isaac knocked down some poles, which still lie in a heap near a work shed. A heavy rain could shut the complex down for days.

Elsewhere in Lafourche Parish, Ward 10 voters approved a .2-mill property tax increase to pay for a new clinic on the Lady of the Sea Hospital campus and a .98-mill renewal dedicated to the Veterans Memorial District.

The hospital measure officially asked permission to sell $3 million in general obligation bonds. It passed with 721 voters, or 54.2 percent, in favor.

The district already collects 0.8 mills for bond purposes, which could rise to 1.0 to satisfy the pending bond sale. In eight years, the tax rate would fall to 0.45, the hospital’s CEO has said.

The new clinic, estimated at 10,270 square feet, would hold seven practitioners, two of which being doctors and have the flexibility to house more doctors, officials have said. It will allow the hospital to close down satellite offices it leases, creating an estimated savings of $145,000 in rent annually.

Sixty-nine percent of the voters – 919 – approved renewing the Veterans Memorial District property tax.

Voters established the district in 2003, agreeing to a 1 mill property tax at that time. It has since rolled back to .98 mills and will now stay in effect through 2023, raising approximately $510,000 each year.

The revenue will be used to maintain a transportation program that shuttles local veterans to Veterans Affairs hospitals throughout the country – free to the 96 veterans who use it regularly – and to help finance a walking trail and reflection pool, the district’s president has said.

Turnout at the south Lafourche ballots was 11 and 11.1 percent on the veteran’s and hospital referendums, respectively.