ST. MARTIN PARISH — Early voting for the November election starts on TOMORROW, October 18, and KATC TV-3 is giving you the information you need to cast your ballot in local races.
On Wednesday, we offered some information about a property tax up for renewal that pays for the Courthouse.
On Thursday, we'll bring you interviews with the two candidates for Mayor of Elton at 6 p.m.
Here are the questions that KATC's Joshua Moton asked of St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre about the tax, as well as the full transcript of Delcambre's answers:
First off, we want to know has this tax paid for in the past?
They call it the courthouse millage, however it’s the court house complex. Parish government oversees on the maintenance of the courthouse itself, which is a historical building here in Saint Martinville, but the complex which includes the jail, which includes the annex, clerk of courts, tax assessor, registrar of voters. And then this facility here in which we’re actually, we’re doing in addition to this within the next couple of months we’re gonna break ground and do an addition so it’s a culmination of all the facilities which constitutes the courthouse complex.
Ok, the other question is, how is the budget split between them, since it’s a complex how are you guys splitting the budget?
Well I mean pretty much historically we know exactly what it entails or it takes to keep these facilities serviced. What people fail to realize is one of the areas that we take care of is the jail. And that’s inclusive of the jail and then all of the expenditures thereof. Meaning the prisoners etc. etc. So when you say courthouse it’s a lot more complex than that and touching on a lot of areas.
Now is there any funding that supports the jail specifically or is that all wrapped into this?
It’s all wrapped into this you know normally when you say jail or something along those lines you think of the sheriff. The sheriff has his own milage in which his services are taken care off however the jail facilities itself and all the prisoners are under Parish Government heading.
Well are there any future projects that might be planned using this funding?
Well basically it’s a maintenance millage and in my presentations, I’ve been going across the parish and what I try and instill into the people is that we call it a millage however if you would identify it as a service, cause each one of these eight millages that are coming up for renewal and again I say that, they are all renewals are services that are being provide by the parish you know. So the voters have the ability to say yes or to say no; it’s not like a federal mandate or a state mandate; these are local millages. However, if we tie it into the exact service that’s being rendered by the parish, very very important and you can actually see the bang for your buck as to where these monies are going to.
And the final question which you already kind of touched on but is this a tax increase?
No tax increase, in fact I’ll take it to the next level: real estate values have increased. Every four years a tax assessor does an assessment and it just so happens to be this year. So, the real estate values went up so the millages, if you remain the millage at the same millage rate, your taxes will go up. What I did when that occurred, I took our individual millage rates for the parish and I rolled them back. I decreased each and every millage that we are putting on the ballot in November and December, to where you are paying no more than what you paid before. If you see a tax increase and when the sheriff sends you out this notice, it’s not due to the millages that are inclusive of saint martin parish government.
