The Lafayette City-Parish Council is expected to decide tonight (Tuesday) whether to go along with a proposal City-Parish President Joey Durel made in February's State of the Parish Address and consolidate taxes for mosquito control and the parish health units into a broader tax program that would also cover animal control.
The Lafayette City-Parish Council is expected to decide tonight (Tuesday) whether to go along with a proposal City-Parish President Joey Durel made in February's State of the Parish Address and consolidate taxes for mosquito control and the parish health units into a broader tax program that would also cover animal control. Tonight's vote is primarily to renew the property taxes for mosquito abatement and the health units, which are set to expire next year; rolling animal control into the renewal would create a parishwide public health tax.
If approved, voters will consider the consolidated tax on Dec. 6.
The separate taxes - currently 2.06 mills for the health units and 1.50 mills for the mosquito control program - would upon council approval become a single 3.56 mills tax covering all three programs. In other words, parish property owners' tax burden would not increase. The tax generates about $6.6 million annually.
Durel said at the State of Parish address early this year that the two current millages generate more revenue than is needed to run the programs, and rolling in animal control could have a net benefit to city and parish general funds as well as the smaller municipalities in the parish that currently pay a fee to the city of Lafayette for animal control services.
"Animal control, which is currently a city' function, becomes a parish'" function, but not an unfunded mandate like we so often get sent to us," Durel said at the time. "Without raising taxes, we free up nearly one million dollars that will go directly into the city general fund, and about $300,000 would go to the parish general fund. Being a parishwide millage, the municipalities will no longer have to reimburse the city of Lafayette for animal control. For the first time ever, we will have dedicated money to not only operate animal control, but to build a new state-of-the-art facility that better represents the best overall city and parish in America."