‘Better roads’ reason for tax

Published 12:15 am Friday, October 19, 2018

Iberia Parish President Larry Richard, Iberia Parish Council Chairman Paul Landry and IPC member Natalie Broussard ventured Thursday evening to Willow Wood Park to talk to local residents about a proposed road tax on the November ballot. 

Speaking to a small group of residents at the Willow Wood Center, the three laid out the history of Iberia Parish Government’s funding issues over the past several years with roads in the parish in an informal town hall meeting. 

“What we’re trying to do right now is build our infrastructure to have better roads,” Richard said. “As we travel around and talk to businesses, we get them here but we don’t have everything they need. What we’re looking to have right now is better roads.”

The proposed measure on the Nov. 6 ballot is a ¾-cent sales tax that would be dedicated strictly for roads in Iberia Parish. Only residents living in unincorporated sections of the parish will be voting for the tax, and if passed the roads benefitting from the tax would only be in unincorporated areas. 

That means people living in New Iberia, Jeanerette, Delcambre and Loreauville city limits will be unaffected by it. 

The tax is expected to bring in about $3.4 million annually, and $33 million over a 10-year period. The tax would be completed after the 10-year period. 

Richard said the Parish Council had approved a resolution several years ago for his administration to contract an independent study on the 400 miles of roads in the parish. After a priority list was created for roads that need repairs, the parish president said the next step was to get funding for the projects. 

“There were a lot of funds where don’t have a lot of extra dollars,” Richard said. “There are a lot of funds that are good, the problem is they’re dedicated. We don’t have any dedicated funds for roads.” 

Road projects were formerly taken out of the parish’s Royalty Fund, but due to the lack of work in the oil and gas industry over the past several years that fund has dried up.