The city of St. Martinville will be able to vote in the November 18th elections for a sales tax increase on their ballot.
Mayor Jason Willis said the sales tax would increase from 8.95% to 9.45%.
He said St.Martinville has the lowest tax rate of 2 percent in the area while some surrounding city tax rates can be as high as 3.5 such as Youngsville.
The mayor said that by upping the sales tax by .50%, the city would generate $500,000 dollars a year in revenue. He said this would allow them to purchase a $6 million bond to go towards city improvements.
“We’ll be able to do major, major, major projects in Sit. Martinville,” said Willis. “Meaning that we’ll be able to do street repairs, sidewalk repairs and even add sidewalks to neighborhoods that don’t have sidewalks. We’ll be able to do park improvements meaning playground equipment that needs to be fixed and also maybe buy additional playground equipment and other things that would make the parks feasible for kids and also drainage.”
Maria Matis who owns C’est Jolie Too and Angele Bulliard who grew up in St. Martinville says they are both for tax money going towards giving the city a make over, particularly for sidewalks.
“Five to seven years ago on the other side of town same boulevard my grandmother actually fell and broke her nose, I thought about that incident,” said Bulliard.
“The sidewalks definitely because theres cracks and bumps all over,” said Matis. “Several people, my delivery girl has fallen a couple of times, just going to the funeral home. I’ve tripped a few times coming back with stands. It’s kinda rough to walk on.”
Willis said as long as he’s mayor no sales taxes and bond money will go towards salaries, retirement or benefits.
