Local Government Windfall on Property Taxes

[quest]

Seen your property tax bills?

Better be sitting when you open them.

On a 1700 sq foot home, my parish property taxes went from $4.25 last year to over $530 this year, over a hundred fold increase!!!!!

My city property taxes were $134.47 last year. I haven't got the bill yet, but I estimate them at about $1200!!!!!!

So, the question needs to be asked.... What are all of these recurring revenues going to be used for?

Needed street improvements? Raises? New govt buildings?
New fire stations? New cars? Who knows....

The cp council is going to have a largess beyond the dreams of Midas.

One can only hope that they do not tie it to recurring expenses, for if they do, they public, whose money it is, will be forever tied to those recurring expenses, regardless of the future economy.

[ronnief]

Windfall on sales taxes, windfall on property taxes and yet no visible improvements except the infamous traffic cameras.

And by the way, has anyone noticed the much promised improvement in drivers in Lafayette ? Well, I haven't. I pretty much see people running lights as much as always. I like the light at Simcoe; I see it flash whenever I am near it, so evidently people are stupid, or just do not care. They still speed and they still run the lights everywhere. But at least Redflex and the city are making money.

[MaryAnn]

I have a question for the Parish Council/Parish President; If Redflex is making so much money making our streets safe (Ha,Ha) why aren't they putting up the cost for checking the accuracy of the tickets etc. ? Don't they make half of the money they are fleecing from the citizens ? It appears that council members Boudreaux and Shelvin are the only ones who think before voting.

And on the topic of the parish Council; The proposed bond election is hardly enough to make a difference in our roads. What is this really for, resurfacing of a few streets ?

[RonS]

I have a suggestion; let Charlie Buckels pay it out of his commission that he earned.

When will the council wake up and abandon this program ? How dare Tramel the bureaucrat tell the council what he thinks a parish ordinance says and what they MUST pay. How impudent ! Ditto with the utilities department and this fiber cable foolishness pushed by Huval. Let the private companies do it if it is so great.
I hope the next mayor-president cleans house of all these career bureaucrats. Courthouse too. Comeaux the ASSessor. A friend of the people to be sure.

Is that not what supply/demand is all about ? Free Enterprise ? Tell me again what retail experience Huval has. Where did he acquire his business acumen ?

[ronnief]

Isn't impudence the way Lafayette Bureaucrats have always operated ? Yet one more reason for civil service to be outlawed. These people have jobs for life and no one can get rid of them.

What city have you ever been in with traffic issues like we have that has had the same traffic engineer forever ? Only we are that sad.

[zoe10850]

Our mayor-president wants to undo consolidation. Wouldn't the logic dictate more consolidation to actually fulfill the promise made, savings. We have so much duplication. Why ? So we can have even more elected officials and employees ?

Maybe listen to constituents and quit fleecing the public with garbage like traffic cameras and "fiber". We benefit how ? Recent article in Advertiser discussed how utility system is subsidizing fiber network to make it appear more self-sufficient. The city response; those people are lying and have a hidden agenda (free enterprise ??).