Public safety tax to start in October

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A 0.25% tax to fund public safety pay raises is scheduled to begin in October and is projected to generate at least $500,000 a year.
The tax passed with 78% of the vote on May 4 in the election that drew 6,308 votes.
In recent weeks there has been questions raised on social media about the tax that have drawn Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot online.
Fontenot and city financial advisor Steve Moosa have said the city won’t start seeing proceeds from the tax until December.
The earliest police and fire department employees will see the money in their checks is January, Fontenot said.
In a phone interview, Fontenot said the money will go into the city’s general fund, but be dedicated to public safety pay. A special account is not required, he said.
“It is going to fund the raises. It is not going to pay the light bill,” he said.
The delay in the city receiving the tax money is due to notifications required to business and others collecting the tax. The school system’s sales tax office sends out notices in January, April, July and October.
The Board of Aldermen did not make final adoption of the tax until June 1, which was too late for the July notices and moved the actual collection of the tax to October.
The situation is not unique to Eunice. In May, Abbeville voters approved a 1% sales tax for city employees raises and the same timetable exists there.
Fontenot explained the process in a social media posting,
“Businesses are required to remit sales tax collections per month on the 20th of the following month. In this case that would be November 20th when sales taxes are actually collected by the School Board. The School Board will then issue the sales tax collection for the month of October to the City of Eunice in December. The City of Eunice’s financial advisor recommended to collect the tax at least one month to pay any associated costs to the hold the election and to have a surplus for low monthly collections. After that point in time, the City will then issue pay raises as is required by law,” he stated.
The starting pay for police officers is to go up $3 an hour, police support employee pay goes up 10% and firefighter pay goes up $2 an hour, he said.
Fontenot stated the police department is almost a third of the city’s budget. He acknowledged in his online post that the department’s budget was cut $80,000, but also stated $90,000 from the capital outlay fund has been budgeted to the department.
Fontenot casts doubt on any idea that the pay raise tax will solve the budget issues with the police department.
If the department continues to experience a staffing shortage that creates overtime situations the pay raises will increase the pressure on the budget, he said.