The destiny of the division that gives restaurant inspections, well being screenings and different companies in Livingston Parish is unknown after voters once more rejected a renewal of the tax that funds it.
Voters rejected the measure to assist fund the Livingston Parish Well being Unit by a margin of 51% to 49%.
The renovation would have been for two mills beginning in 2025 and would final 10 years. A mill represents 1 greenback of tax per thousand of assessed property worth. It will have raised about $1.2 million a yr for the company.
That is the second time residents have rejected the renewal. In 2023, 57% of voters rejected a 2.5-mill renewal, so parish officers tried once more with a smaller quantity.
The well being unit is chargeable for restaurant inspections, water system testing, vaccinations, well being screenings, household planning companies and extra. A number of the tax cash would even have gone towards enhancing animal shelters and offering further assist for animal management.
Parish President Randy Delatte has spent the previous few months advocating the significance of unity for the parish. He stated unity influences many points of day by day life.
“In case you're in a restaurant, you wish to ensure that your meals is protected, so your whole eating places are inspected by that group,” Delatte stated. “Say you construct a home, you need to have that group examine the sewer.”
He stated the unit's function could also be minimized within the coming years because of lack of funding, a minimum of till it may possibly discover alternative routes to handle the constructing.
The companies are legally required and the parish has no plans for layoffs presently, Delatte stated. At the moment, the parish has a surplus that may fund the unit for the following three or 4 years.
Critics of the tax stated they both didn’t assist the well being unit's features or had been merely uninterested in taxes.
“We pay loads of taxes and plenty of instances most individuals have no idea the place their tax cash goes. We, as a authorities, didn’t make a ok plan nor did we now have sufficient info accessible to let individuals know the way essential this was. tax,” he stated. “The individuals are at all times proper and so they voted towards it twice, so we now have to make do with what we now have.”
The second parish-wide tax proposal on the poll handed narrowly, with 51% of voters approving it. The proposal wouldn’t change tax charges, however would rededicate cash from an current gross sales tax to tasks similar to drainage and animal management applications.