LIVINGSTON, La. (WAFB) – There is a quarter-cent sales tax in Livingston Parish that is used to run the Livingston Parish jail, but that money could soon be used for other things.
“We can’t use it for anything but the jail, but if the people say that we can use it, we can use it,” said Ricky Goff, District Seven Councilman for Livingston Parish.
They are asking that Livingston Parish residents give them the go-ahead in the November 5th election, to use that money for drainage, roads, and animal control.
”We are not taking anything away from the jail, the way this proposition is worded is that the jail fund has to be satisfied first, and it doesn’t matter if we have two dollars, $200, or $2 million left, those dollars can be used for streets and drainage and yes also animal control,” added Goff.
The current sales tax brings around $7.5 million to the jail, but the jail only requires around $3.5 million to operate according to Goff. That leaves $4 million left over and unused.
“It’s what the people wanted, it’s as simple as that, the number one thing that they wanted was to be safe, they want good streets, they want good drainage, and they want animal control,” explained Goff.
The goal of this proposition is to make changes to Livingston Parish, without taxing their residents even more.
“It’s just to make sure that we can continue to move forward and do what the people want us to do and do it with the least amount of money that we possibly can, and that is we’re not going to be raising no one’s taxes,” said Goff, “this is a sales tax, based on people coming in and out of our parish and purchasing things, going up and down the interstate purchasing fuel or whatever it may be, so they help pay that bill, it’s not on the rooftops of the constituents.”
They do still plan to set money aside for future updates and expansions for the jail.
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