Harlan Kirgan
City voters may be asked to double their property tax for 15 years and rededicate a sales tax to rebuild city streets and provide pay raises for city employees.
Two items are on the agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
One item is to rededicate 50 percent of a 1 percent sales tax for salaries. The sales tax is now dedicated to infrastructure.
The other is to add an 11.62 mill property tax to fund a 15-year bond issue for road improvement. Some sewerage work would be included in the bond issue.
Mayor Scott Fontenot said, “The city is in a situation where we want to move forward with some things we want to do as far as our street overlay program.”
The property tax will generate about $8.3 million mostly for road work, he said.
Redirecting the sales tax will allow the city to provide police pay competitive with other cities and a 10 to 12 percent pay raise for other employees. Firefighters also would be in line for a pay increase, he said.
Fontenot said the proposal is a win-win for residents. City streets have been overlaid every two years. The plan would allow for a majority of the work to be done in one program, he said.
Fontenot doesn’t believe the millage increase is a burden and points to his own house. His property tax bill is now $89 on his house and would double, he said. “Which equals to about 23 cents additional per day,” he said.
Jack Burson, alderman at-large, said the plan is inspired by a street overlay program in Crowley, which rebuilt that city’s major streets with a 15-year bond.
“Our every other year program for overlay is better than nothing, but we are never going to get to where we need to be particularly in the older part of town with curb and gutter streets where you all know we have done very little,” he said.
Some areas in Eunice have been overlaid in 25 to 30 years, he said.
The millage rate in Eunice is below that paid in Crowley, Jennings, Ville Platte and Basile, he said.
In a 2015 property millage comparison, the Eunice millage as 11.62 compared to: Crowley, 30.25; Opelousas 7.13; Ville Platte, 35.9; Oakdale, 16.4; Rayne, 12.1; Pineville, 15.85; Iota, 27; and Jennings, 19.56.
Eunice city employees have not received a raise in seven or eight years, he said.
Other agenda items include:
— Shirley Vige Jr. is present the city’s fiscal year audit.
— Property at 130 N. 6th St. is to be rezoned from residential to commercial.
— A contract with Steel Building Construction Company, LLC, for a new airport terminal is be presented.
— Appoints to the zoning commission and Eunice-Opelousas Library Board are proposed.