Even though the Iberia Parish Council passed its millages for 2019 at its May 8 meeting, the decision to raise all of the parish’s millages except for its library operations tax to their maximum leaves some planning to be done for the future.

As part of that planning, the council’s Ad Hoc Millage Committee will meet tonight for what its agenda describes as “an open discussion on the reallotment of millages.”

“It’s about quality of life,” District 6 Councilwoman Natalie Broussard said. “The millage committee is not finished. We are done with millages for this year, but we are still working on reallocating millages for the future.”

During last week’s regular council meeting, three council members — District 5 Councilman Warren Gachassin, District 9 Councilman Joel Dugas and District 11 Councilman Brian Napier — voted against the recommendation, which was forced after the state Legislative Auditor’s Office said an existing .76 mill assessment for jail and courthouse building upkeep will not be able to be assessed in the future.

“I’m not saying go hog wild with taxes,” Armond Schwing, the chairman of the Ad Hoc Millage Committee, said at Wednesday’s meeting. “We need to look at what the return on investment is.”

Gachassin, Napier and Dugas objected to the .15 mill increase that resulted from rolling the existing millages forward. Gachassin even wore a button proclaiming “No New Taxes” to the meeting.

But the vote also demonstrated the lack of flexibility the parish has in determining how its funds can be spent. In the past, when the parish’s Royalty Fund was bringing in multiple millions of dollars annually instead of hundreds of thousands, it was the primary funding source for the parish’s road maintenance fund. It also gave previous administrations the ability to lower millages to the point that, without the royalty income, parish government as it exists now costs more to operate than its millages bring in.

As the millages are currently allocated, the only millage the council can raise is the library operations fund millage, but money derived from that tax cannot be used for other needs like road maintenance or drainage improvements. And even with the other parish millages rolled forward, the increased revenue is merely slowing the deficit spending, not eliminating it.

“When was the last time the parish had a millages adjustment?” Schwing asked at the meeting. “I know people say our people are flocking to neighboring parishes. We are losing people. When all my kids want to be with their friends, where are they? Right down the road.”

District 3 Councilman Michael Landry agreed.

“When is it we are going to invest in ourselves?” Landry asked. “I see people moving to Lafayette, to Youngsville, to St. Martin paying much more in taxes, much more in millages. Here, our roads are bad, and we are doing what we can with drainage. We need to stand up and do what we can do.”

One concern Council Chairman Paul G. Landry raised was the demise of the parish’s ability to fund road maintenance. A tax to cover those costs in light of the decreased royalty revenue from the energy sector failed to pass last fall.

“The people spoke, and said they did not want to pay for road work,” Landry said. “Until there is funding, we will do what we can, but without funds we will run out of money for patching before the end of the year.”

The Ad Hoc Millage Committee will meet at 6 p.m. this evening in the parish council meeting room on the fourth floor of the Iberia Parish Courthouse, 300 Iberia St.