An expired sales tax for one Evangeline Parish community is prompting the parish sales tax commission to stress the importance of communication between outgoing and incoming government officials.
This topic first arose when Pine Prairie Mayor Quint West discovered late in 2018 an expired sales tax for roads had continued to be collected by the Sales Tax Commission and disbursed to the Village of Pine Prairie.
According to Candace F. Serie with the Evangeline Parish Sales Tax Commission, from the time she began working with the Sales Tax Commission they had been notified by municipalities when a sales tax was near its expiration date.
However, she said, when officials such as a mayor change, “whose to say the previous mayor will update the incoming mayor on these things.”
For some municipalities, Serie said they do have ordinances from when the sales tax was first passed by voters in a specific jurisdiction but not all ordinances provide a date for the expiration of the sales tax.
In regard to the Pine Prairie sales tax, the tax commission had been provided information about the two percent sales tax in 2007 from the village’s bonding attorney Foley and Judell, LLP. But, Serie said they had no way of knowing if the sales tax had ever been put on a ballot for renewal or if it had been renewed. However, Serie explained that in many other instances, the Sales Tax Commission only has the original ordinance on file from when the tax was first passed.
Serie stated, “When the Sales Tax Commission was started in 1992 they didn’t have the ordinances on file, so they had to get that from the taxing bodies. That’s how we have the originals. But, there were a few taxing bodies in the 1990’s and a few past the year 2000 that when they changed their lawyers or mayor they mailed the ordinance to us. So it has always been a system of them notifying us of when it changed.”
Serie continued, “The best way I can describe it is it’s kind of like when you have a baby and you bring your baby to the babysitter. The babysitter takes instruction from the parent. The parent tells the babysitter what time their child needs to be fed, what food they like and what they are allergic to. You give direction as the mother. In essence the taxing body is our mother and we are just the babysitter.”
Although collections of an expired sales tax continued, Serie made it a point to state the collections were “done in good faith.”
Serie stated, “No one had the intention to continue to collect a sales tax that had expired. I know the mayor didn’t do it intentionally, and the businesses have done exactly what they were suppose to do. It was all done in good faith.
“A sales tax is for the community, and although this tax had expired it was still collected, distributed to the taxing body and used for the community.”
Serie also shared advice for all taxing bodies to be able to ensure they do not end up facing a situation such as this one.
She stated, “We would have nine jurisdictions to worry about, whereas the staff in the taxing body’s office only has one date to remember.
“If I worked in that office what I would do is on January 1st of every year, the staff should pull their ordinances and find out what expires and put it on their calendar.”
The Village of Pine Prairie will be putting their expired sales tax on the ballot for the March 30th election. This tax is dedicated for the purpose of construction, maintenance and repair of public streets and roadways within the village.
Early voting for the March 30 election will take place from March 16 to March 23.
If passed, Pine Prairie is expected to collect approximately $135,000 for an entire year.
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ELIZABETH WEST Managing Editor