City Talks Tax Election

City Talks Tax Election

BOBBY ARDOIN

St. Landry Now.com Editor

A proposed 1-cent municipal sales and use tax election scheduled perhaps for sometime in August was discussed at some length Friday during a special Opelousas Board of Aldermen meeting held at City Hall.

The purpose of the meeting, said Mayor Julius Alsandor, was essentially informational so that the public has advanced notice that the administration intends to further discuss on and possibly approve on May 22 a comprehensive sales tax proposition that will eventually be placed before voters.

A current 1-cent citywide sales tax was renewed every 15 years since 1995 is scheduled to expire May 31,Alsandor told the Board of Aldermen during an April meeting.

During that April meeting, Alsandor admitted that he and other persons within his administration are responsible for letting the current sales tax expire before an election could be called.

On Friday Alsandor said he became aware of the sales tax expiration during a meeting with the city auditors.

Due to the expiration of the tax renewal, the city will also have to ask for an additional 0.17 percent citywide sales tax to be issued at least through June and July in order to recover revenues that are anticipated to be lost during those two months.

At this point however there is no mention of a tax renewal for the new ballot proposition.

Instead the tax proposal currently includes the word “perpetuity,” which normally refers to an indefinite amount of time.

City Attorney Travis Broussard explained that in his opinion, the term “perpetuity” as it pertains to the impending citywide tax proposition, means a tax which has no specified expiration date.

Broussard said the city will need to take several steps in order to place the tax proposition on the ballot.

Those hurdles include gaining approval by the State Bonding Commission at a June 11 meeting in addition to receiving an approval several weeks later from the Louisiana Secretary of State.

A legislative bill (HB 532) authored by State Representative Dustin Miller asks state approval for municipalities with populations of between 15,000 and 16,000 residents to hold a special election on a Saturday that is not otherwise designated by state law.

That bill was filed three days after the April 11 Board of Aldermen meeting in which Alsandor notified the public that the current sales tax will expire May 31.

In order for the bill to become law, the bill will have to receive  two-thirds approval from the Bond Commission, the Secretary of State and signature from Gov. Jeff Landry.

As it is currently written, the proposed perpetuity tax includes funding for every municipal department, including employees salaries, infrastructure and capital improvements for water, sewerage, roads and bridges..

After the meeting Alsandor said he plans to conduct a series of Town Hall presentations following the May 22 meeting.

“The purpose of those meetings will be to let the people know the purpose of the tax and explain to them the progress that we have made. When we (were elected) we were faced with two million dollars in debt. We are nowhere near that now,” said Alsandor.