THIBODAUX, La. (AP) - Lafourche Parish voters will decide May 3 whether to levy a sales tax to pay for a new jail.
Sheriff Craig Webre has proposed a new 0.2 percent sales tax to build and operate a new 600-bed, $30 million jail.
Webre tells The Daily Comet (https://bit.ly/1h0M41P) he filed the proposal last week with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.
The Parish Council has debated how to pay for a new jail since 2009. In November, Lafourche voters rejected the council’s proposal to transfer part of the parish library’s property tax to build a new jail.
The existing jail, built in 1968 and expanded in 1977, is in poor condition and suffers from chronic overcrowding. One consultant said it is in the worst condition of any jail he’s seen, and Webre has called it the least efficient design he’s ever seen.
If the jail tax is approved, taxpayers would pay 8.2 percent sales tax in Thibodaux, 8.7 in north Lafourche outside of Thibodaux and 9.4 percent in south Lafourche.
The 0.2 percent sales tax would have collected $2.2 million in 2013, according to the parish’s tax-collection records.
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Information from: Daily Comet, https://www.dailycomet.com
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