Mayor Freddie DeCourt spoke to the New Iberia Kiwanis Club Thursday afternoon regarding a city proposition on the November ballot. 

Mayor Freddie DeCourt wanted New Iberia residents to know one thing about the city’s proposition that will be voted on Nov. 8: it’s not a new tax.

Speaking to the New Iberia Kiwanis Club Thursday afternoon, DeCourt laid out his plan for his proposed “Vote Yes for Better Streets” proposition, which has formed into a political action committee and will be seen by city residents until election day.

If approved, the proposition will not add more taxes but instead use a 6.85 millage for sewer debt that is currently on the books and instead use it for maintenance New Iberia roads.

Although a citywide road project has been happening this year to address some of the worst roads in New Iberia, DeCourt said that project was not enough to meaningfully fix the road problem in the city.

“Sixty percent of our roads suck, you all drive them every day,” DeCourt said. “If we’re ever going to break the cycle of every mayor floating a bond once and passing it off to the next mayor we have to do something.”

The mayor’s “out of the box” solution is the proposition on the ballot. Instead of paying sewer debt, the $1.4 mills will instead be used to float another bond that will allow the city to continue repairing roads once the current scope of the New Iberia Streets Project is over.

“If this passes, we’ll be able to bond out $10 million in January and keep right on it,” DeCourt said.

The new dedicated source of funding for roads will give the city $750,000 for 20 years to keep city roads maintained. DeCourt said the dedicated funding would be crucial for maintaining roads and would allow to focus on drainage and expansion cracks which are the main culprits in city roads being put in poor conditions.

Currently, DeCourt said the PAC formed for the project is working to spread the word to voters, and the mayor emphasized that no taxpayers would not be paying anything extra with the proposal.

“It’s a creative way to do something about our roads that gives us a 20-year solution,” he said. “My big ask is that you support and get the word out that it is not a new tax.”