ODDD Delays Sales Tax
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
(Freddie Herpin Photos)
A proposed expansion of the Opelousas Downtown Development District that included an additional 1-cent on sales tax collected by some businesses along Creswell Lane, was delayed unanimously and indefinitely Friday during a regular monthly meeting.
The 4-0 vote followed a public hearing on the ordinance adoption which was rejected by district members Sarah Branton, Pat Fontenot, Rob Hilliard and Donald D’Avy.
ODDD members Stephen Daste and Ogden Pitre were absent.
None of those who attended the meeting spoke in favor of the sales tax increase that ODDD chairperson Lena Charles said would affect only major franchise stores that operate from Union Street to the eastern part of Creswell.
Aldermen Charles Cummings said he was representing members of his election district who told him they were in opposition to the ordinance which was introduced during an August meeting.
No one representing the city administration attended the meeting.
Mayoral candidate Elbert Guillory asked Charles to consider delaying the ordinance vote until after the election is over.
Guillory asked the ODDD to consider the existing “poverty climate” in Opelousas.
“This tax would place a heavy burden on many of the residents here. I would ask (the ODDD) to delay this vote until after the election. I want to understand this (ordinance) more and if I am elected mayor, I would ask that we could work together,” Guillory added.
Charles said she has always considered the ODDD to be a partner of the city administration.
ODDD member Sarah Branton said she does not see a need at this point for the District to consider further expansion.
“We (the ODD) have money in the bank and we have no new projects scheduled right now,” Branton said.
Steve Picou, who also spoke at the meeting said charging an extra penny for purchases would unfairly affect the poor residents in Opelousas.
Increasing a sales tax, Picou said, has always been an ineffective way of promoting economic development.
Picou also pointed to the Donald Gardner Stadium project which is being supported by $5 million of bonded indebtedness funded by the ODDD.
The stadium project, Picou said, was a bad idea, since Picou noted the facility is overfunded and underutilized.
Grasshopper Mendoza added that Opelousas already has one of the highest sales tax rates nationwide.
Mendoza asked Charles for an estimate of how much the District would receive if the 1-cent sales tax was implemented in addition to how the extra money collected would be spent.
ODDD member Pat Fontenot said he also isn’t in favor of adding 1-cent to every dollar of Creswell sales.
What the city needs instead, Fontenot said, is a higher property tax millage rate whose funding would help eliminate many of the infrastructure problems in Opelousas.
Fontenot also disagreed with Picou about the impact of the stadium.
The stadium, said Fontenot, was completed as an investment for youths in Opelousas.
