Thibodaux OKs sales tax hike; Dist. 5 in runoff

Thibodaux residents voted to raise their own sales tax and place term limits on their city council members, while Lafourche’s District 5 council seat is headed to a run-off.

The half-cent sales tax increase will raise money for the city’s capital projects budget, while council members will have a three-term limit. Thibodaux residents also voted to renew a property tax millage of five mills for the next 10 years, which will go toward the city’s fire department.

The sales tax hike had the closest margin of the city’s three measures, winning with a 57 percent majority. Thibodaux Mayor Tommy Eschete said with the current budget negotiations happening in Baton Rouge, any proposal of a new revenue stream would be a hard sell. He felt, however, that the city handled it correctly in starting the process four years ago and hosting a year of community meetings to talk about the proposal.

“I think we did it the right way. I guess that shows at least most of our community has faith in what we’re doing and trust us. The people who didn’t vote for it, I understand; they can’t afford it. But for us to not propose that when we’ve cut our capital budget as much as we have, we wouldn’t have been doing our job,” the mayor said.

Eschete said the approved increase will change the tone of pre-budget hearings the city has in July. In recent years, council members would propose projects that Eschete would have to quickly shoot down, citing a thin budget that could only pay for maintenance costs. Now, Thibodaux officials will be able to consider projects to push forward with, according to Eschete.

“It will certainly give our pre-budget hearing some meaning,” he said.

Thibodaux’s mayor said he expected the city’s voters to approve term limits on the council members. Any current council member will have a three-term limit, starting with the next election. Though Eschete did not endorse either side of the issue, he said he is a supporter of term limits.

“The term limit issue is a personal issue that our voters decided on. Personally I’m a big proponent of term limits, but not everybody is, so I didn’t push that one way or another,” Eschete said.

In Lafourche Parish as a whole, the District 5 council seat is still up for grabs. The seat, originally slated for incumbent John Arnold until he was disqualified from the fall election due to outstanding fines, was on the March 5 ballot. Roy Landry is currently serving as the interim council member until the election is settled.

The three-way race ended with no candidate taking a majority, so District 5 will go to an April 9 run-off between James Honore Bourgeois and Holly “Scooter” LeBouef. Bourgeois took home 43 percent of the vote on Saturday, with LeBouef following at 33 percent.

Mark Atzenhoffer came in third with the remaining 24 percent.

Bourgeois said he won’t change his campaign strategy for the run-off, instead continuing to talk to voters and listen to what they want. He said that he sees District 5 as the “glue” that brings the parish, with its many different districts and interests, together. He cited his learning in the United States Army Command and General Staff College as valuable experience for the job, saying his education has taught him how people with competing interests come to an agreement for the greater good.

“Those voters choose their councilmen and they have to come together as a team and work together to push Lafourche forward. And the fact that I have a year and a half of experience doing that already is great,” Bourgeois said.

LeBouef said she will continue to “beat the streets” and meet with voters in the run up to the run-off. She said she has attended every parish council meeting since she tossed her name in the hat so she can stay aware of what’s going on, and she has met with many interest groups in the Bayou Blue area.

LeBouef said she wishes to address drainage issues and increase funding for the parish’s animal shelters as a council member. However, she said the most pressing issue in the area is the district’s derelict properties.

“There’s a special area that I would really, really like to get cleaned up in the middle of Bayou Blue. There’s a lot of places that need to come down; there’s a lot of people that need to clean the place up,” she said.

James Bourgeois

James Bourgeois and Holly “Scooter” LeBouef are headed to a run-off for the Lafourche Parish Council District 5 seat on April 9. District 5 includes Raceland and Bayou Blue.

COURTESY