Editorial: property tax renewal critical for sheriff's office
Earlier this week The Independent Weekly urged your support of the bond proposal
that will help fund the repair of 150 roads and more than 15 bridges in
Lafayette Parish. We now also urge you to vote in favor of the property
tax renewal to continue critical funding for the Lafayette Parish
Sheriff's Office. Neither of these measures will increase your tax
burden.
First approved by voters in 1980, the property tax generates about $13
million annually, roughly one-third of the office's $42 million budget,
according to Sheriff Mike Neustrom. Should the tax fail, it would be a
significant blow to the office, especially salaries. "Eighty percent of
our money is spent on salaries," Neustrom says. "There would be some
salary cuts."
Here's how the tax works: If your home value is $100,000, you are
assessed an 8.76 mill on $25,000 (because of the $75,000 homestead
exemption), which means you pay $21.90 per year. If your home is valued
at $125,000, you would be assessed the mill on $50,000, thereby paying
$43.80 per year.
The sheriff's office is also funded by a permanent property tax and a
1-cent sales tax collected from the unincorporated areas of the parish.
The latter could eventually impact the office's funding should sales
tax in the parish begin to fall in light of the economic downturn,
making Saturday's vote even more important in ensuring the continuation
of vital services offered by the department.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Subscribe to this comment's feed