There has been much hullaballoo lately from both sides about the sheriff’s proposed one-cent sales tax and the industrial tax exemption requested by Cabot. As for me, I support both issues.
First for the tax exemption, here are a few reasons why it is a good idea.
Not long after I first started working the clerk’s office, Pine Prairie Energy Co. was given a 15-year property tax exemption. Like many others, I thought this was the biggest sin of the parish. Also, like many others, I was ignorant to the facts concerning the issue at hand.
I went to many, if not all, the public hearings concerning Cabot’s industrial tax exemption and heard people say the same things how they were vehemently opposed to it in the beginning but came around after they learned all the facts.
Here is one glaring fact. The exemption is 80 percent on industrial taxes created from Cabot upgrading pieces of equipment to alleviate the air quality problems in the parish.
But, let me tell you, 20 percent is better than nothing, especially when it comes to a project the size of this one. That 20 percent we will be getting is money we do not have coming in at the present moment. On top of that 20 percent we will be getting, think of all the sales taxes the parish will be collecting from Cabot purchasing the pieces of equipment and all of the associated supplies. Meanwhile, as other smaller projects come up at Cabot that are not eligible for the exemption, the parish will collect more increased tax revenue. Do not look at what we are missing out on, look at what we’re getting. Again, what we’re getting is better than nothing.
Now, regarding the sales tax, I know “tax” is a bad three-letter word. But, in this case, it is something needed.
Freedom is not free, and neither is law and order. It costs money to take and keep criminals off our streets. We all know too well the problem crime plagues on our streets. Drug usage runs rampant starting at a young age and then leads to other kinds of crime.
In what feels like a past life, I used to be a minute clerk for Clerks Walter Lee and Randy Deshotel. How many times I would sit in court and see the same offenders being paraded before the judge over and over again for the same offenses? I would also see juvenile offenders “graduate” into adult court. We need to break this cycle. How we do that? Part of the solution comes with increased patrols.
It also costs money to try to prevent crime from happening by having juvenile resource officers. These are just a few of the things for which our sheriff wants to use money from the tax.
Like the sheriff said at a recent Rotary meeting, less crime in the parish is more appealing to businesses and industries looking to locate here.
The sheriff also wants to use money from the tax for a new jail, which is in dire need. I know firsthand the condition of the present jail. No, I was never arrested for anything, but I have gone in a few times while working at the clerk’s office. No person deserves to live in conditions like those.
Because of the cramped conditions and the limited space, the parish has been shipping off offenders to parishes in the northern part of the state which costs us taxpayers a fortune and drains the coffers.
The purchase of a new parish jail would alleviate the jail conditions and the financial toll on the parish.
I don’t want to go through all of the sheriff’s proposals for the tax, but I just wanted to hit a few of the high notes. Last thing about the tax, a sales tax, to me, is more fair that imposing a property tax. With a property tax, only the property owners in the parish are tasked with paying it. Also, 70 percent of those property owners are homestead exempted from the tax leaving only 30 percent.
With a sales tax, anybody and everybody in the parish who goes to the store will pay this additional one cent. But wait, there’s more. People from out of town who go set yo-yos at Chicot Park will pay the tax if they stop off here to buy bait, beer, or gas, and people from out of town who come buy boudin and cracklins will also pay the tax.
This parish is at a crossroads with both of these issues. We missed out on getting I-49, and we missed out on getting LSUE. We have taken other steps backwards over our history. Will we miss out again and take another step backward by rejecting the sales tax proposal?
Obviously, I cannot tell you how to vote. But I can say I believe better days for Evangeline Parish are ahead of us. I do not mean just for Ville Platte... I mean for all of Evangeline Parish. We just have to look and see it. Nearsightedness and closed-mindedness has crippled us for way too long.
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Tony Marks
Editor