Looking for permanent fix to fund road repairs

Published 6:00 am Thursday, April 19, 2018

By OFF THE BEAT by Corey Vaughn

After an election season last year where two governmental entities sought new local taxes for public services, it seems like the Iberia Parish Council may soon begin talks for their own new source of revenue. 

The question on the minds of many now is roads. With no dedicated fund in parish government to maintain or overlay roads, the Parish Council and Larry Richard’s administration have been trying to fill a need of what is supposed to be one of government’s most basic services. 

Parish Councilman Ricky Gonsoulin had a solution that was shot down by the council during a finance committee meeting of the council last week. Instead of creating a tax, the council could simply add roads to a dedicated fund that currently goes to mosquito control and drainage. 

The expansion would have ultimately gone to a vote of the people in November, but lacked the votes to get it through that committee. 

Parish President Larry Richard, while appreciative of the idea, said that expanding the use of that particular fund which only brings in about $600,000 annually wasn’t going to solve the problem. 

“I believe we need to find permanent solutions to our problems,” Richard said in last Friday’s Richard Report. “I am reluctant to move in a direction that creates an impression or perception that we can fund true road upgrades and maintenance programs with small adjustments from one fund to another. It will not amount to much.”

We can all agree that Iberia Parish residents are generally not welcoming of taxes, and that can especially be understood in our modern economy where the parish’s main economic engine of oil and gas has been struggling to retain jobs. 

But that doesn’t mean people in the parish won’t vote for anything. New Iberia government proved that last year when the half-cent sales tax to fund a city police department was approved by the voters.

If the estimated $30 million in overlaying and $2.4 million in annual maintenance can only feasibly come from a new tax, and the voters are assured that the funds would be used in a transparent and responsible manner, then perhaps some would be open for paying more tax dollars. 

The only caveat is that it would take a lot of convincing. I don’t think many would argue that roads in Iberia aren’t a problem, but even IPC members have admitted that public trust in government is not what it used to be, and it’s going to take a lot of work from both our public officials and voters to fix that pothole.

COREY VAUGHN is the senior staff writer for The Daily Iberian.