Parish Council to get library tax proposal

It’s a case of “drainage and clean ditches” versus “books and reading”.
Either way, a parish-wide property tax proposal is likely coming this year.
St. Landry is the only parish that does not have a parish library system. It’s a fact that a coalition of citizens in the area would like to see changed.
In February, the St. Landry Parish Council is likely to be asked to schedule a library tax election.
Opelousas attorney Bruce Gaudin – who is the chairman of the library coalition – said that he will send parish council members a letter on Monday regarding the proposal.
“We’re trying to get the parish government to call an election to establish a parish-wide library system,” said Gaudin. “We were hoping that we could present that to the council in January, but we’re not quite there yet. We’re going to present it to them in letter form and then make a presentation before the council on February 19th.”
Gaudin said that the proposal will come in the form of a 5.5 property tax millage for St. Landry Parish property owners with the exception of those in the towns of Sunset, Cankton and Grand Coteau – which already have a millage, library-tax in place.
He said that he hoped that the millage would generate $3 million annually to establish a parish library system.
The proposition would be put before voters on May 3.
“The problem now is whether or not the council will call the election and if they don’t call the election then we’re out of gas, we can’t go anywhere without an election,” said Gaudin. “We want the council to call the election. And if they do, then we will have time to go educate the people and try to get them to realize how far behind we are compared to other parishes.”
Jack Burson, Eunice alderman-at-large and appointed delegate to the Eunice-Opelousas Library Board, said that Acadia Parish has had a library district since 1945. He also said that Evangeline Parish has also had one for nearly 50 years.
“It’s something to think about and it was tried back at the time that the Eunice-Opelousas municipal combination was engineered,” said Burson. “The parish tax failed. So then having a support group at both cities, we came up with the current structure – which is really a cooperative agreement between the two cities. Each of the two cities owns their own library building...we have up-to-10 percent of a sales tax to pay for our part of the operation.”
Will Eunice citizens and city officials endorse the proposed tax? And how will a parish library district affect or transition the already established library structure?
Burson said that the February parish council meeting will be one to watch.
“I guess I’m an old country-boy when it comes to local government but I think that any local government has got to start with roads, bridges, drainage and sewage...those are the base services” said Burson. “If you can take care of those, then you can take care of other things. Now, libraries are very important to me. I think to keep the gates open for all people to knowledge, we’ve got to have libraries. How you structure them is really a business question.”
Burson said that Eunice and Opelousas both have a sales tax which provides some funding to the library. Opelousas provides about 60 percent of the library’s $450,000 budget and Eunice contributes 40 percent, about $154,000 a year.
Alma Reed, a Eunice branch library board trustee, is not so certain that the time is right for the proposal to move forward. She said that timing is everything and the timing is not right for a new tax.
“It’s a glorious idea...but it has to start as a grass-roots movement and this has not been done,” said Reed. “We must interest the people and get them information as to why a parish library system is far better than just a little, small two-system library that we’ve outgrown. But it has to be at a timely point in our history and after a major election maybe isn’t the best time. I really don’t think it’s timely. I think it’s premature since the clean-up and rebuilding that we’ve had to do since we fired the previous director of the library.”
In May of 2011, The Opelousas-Eunice Library Control Board terminated the employment of Director Walter Stubbs. Jackie Choate is the current director of the system.
With recent passage in 2013 in non-incorporated areas for rural roads coming into play, sources close to the story said that St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot is having “a real challenge” to get a core of parish council members on board for a library tax proposal.
A faction is pushing instead for a parish-wide tax to help with what it considers desperately needed drainage improvements. Those advocates note that library services are provided, just not by the parish.
Proponents of the library tax say that an alarmingly high illiteracy rate in the parish may lead to more taxpayers voicing a need for drainage as a priority. Some coalition supporters said that a goal of establishing a St. Landry Parish library district is to help break the cycle of impoverished, illiterate citizens in the parish.
Published statistics in regards to public libraries reflect that the average Louisianan pays $41.01 for the public library service each year while “$40 - $50 is the average cost of a ticket to an LSU footbal game”, according to the 2011 Louisiana Public Library Statistics.
The study also showed that Louisianans made more than 16 million visits to public libraries in 2011 while only 1.2 million fans attended all LSU athletic events in 2011.
The state also ranked high in public access internet computers per library building with more than 6.6 million people utilizing those computers in 2011.
Financially, the staffing at Louisiana public libraries employed a total of 2,453 full-time staffers out of 3,129 people – who earned a total of $76.4 million in total staff salaries and $25.6 million in total employee benefit – in 2011. The Louisiana public libraries reported a total income of more than $196 million in 2011 with more than 93 percent of that generated from cities and parishes.