Road district becomes hottest issue for voters

St. Mary Parish voters will have the opportunity Saturday to decide on a property tax proposition that would provide for the repair of roads in the entire parish except Morgan City, according to parish officials.
For opponents, the proposition only proves that taxes are like zombies: They’re hard to get rid of after their useful life is over.
The parish is currently levying 1.25 mills to repay bonds issued for new libraries and library improvements, St. Mary Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said
In 2014, the parish, in conjunction with the library board of control, paid off some of those bonds, LaGrange said. So this year the parish will only levy about 0.33 mills to pay the remaining outstanding debt on the library bonds, LaGrange said.
In November 2014, the Parish Council created St. Mary Parish Road District No. 1, which covers the same boundaries as the library district, including all of the parish’s unincorporated areas and Franklin, Baldwin, Patterson and Berwick, LaGrange said. Morgan City is not in either district. Morgan City has a road royalty sales tax, passed in 2012, in order to pay for road work.
The Parish Council acts as the board of commissioners for the road district and called for the bond election to be held Saturday to ask voter approval to issue $6.5 million in 20-year road bonds, LaGrange said.
That approval would give authorization to levy the necessary millage needed to pay the annual debt service on those approximately $6.5 million in bonds, LaGrange said. If approved by the voters, based on the current assessed value of the property within the road district, the Parish Council would then levy a property tax of about 0.92 mills, LaGrange said.
“So the total millage proposed to be levied for both library bonds and road bonds, if approved, would remain at 1.25 mills,” LaGrange said. “There’d be no additional millage levied, just a portion of library debt service millage would be shifted to the road district.”
Money from road district bonds would be distributed to each municipality and unincorporated areas of the parish based on its respective population as of the 2010 Census, LaGrange said. There are 34 roads in the parish that are proposed to receive improvements, LaGrange said. Unincorporated areas of the parish would receive about $3.243,500. The city of Franklin would get $1,176,500. The city of Patterson would receive $942,500. The town of Berwick would get $760,500 while the town of Baldwin would receive $377,000, LaGrange said.
The St. Mary Industrial Group Board of Directors is opposing the bond proposition.
SMIG Treasurer Bob Miller said that if the library system doesn’t need the revenue, the millage should end and not be transferred to be used for roads.
“The Parish Council wants to continue to receive the same amount of revenue, so they throw it into a road proposition,” Miller said.
Miller said there were no specific road projects until after the council decided to put the proposition on the ballot. St. Mary Parish Councilman and Patterson Public Works Director Steve Bierhorst said the Parish Council always has a road priority list each year to determine which roads need repairing the most.
“Roads should be financed through sales tax or some other continuing resolution,” Miller said.
Bierhorst said sales taxes are too volatile to count on to be able pay for road improvements.
If a specific municipality or area within the parish wants to tax themselves, then they should vote to do so for just that area, Miller said. The parish is going to experience a tough year or two years, economically, with the downturn in the oilfield, Miller said.
“The taxes always fall on businesses because of (the) Homestead Exemption,” Miller said.
Miller emphasized that the views he expressed are his own and not necessarily the views of the rest of SMIG’s board members, he said. St. Mary Parish Road District No. 1 would be the 45th taxing entity in the parish, Miller said.
Bierhorst said the road millage proposition is necessary because lots of infrastructure in the parish is “in dire need of work.” Bierhorst said the road district millage would not be a new tax. “The poor working man deserves to live on a paved street as well as the businessman that he works for,” Bierhorst said.
Road district money will be distributed according to the population of each entity and won’t be awarded specially to any certain entity, Bierhorst said. Bierhorst believes the people of the parish should decide whether they want the millage, he said.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.