Use of tax proceeds conforms to ’00 proposition
Published 6:24 pm Sunday, October 22, 2017
The Calcasieu Parish School Board voted to use existing sales tax revenue to pay for the gym and band room at Sam Houston High School. Is this legal?
The state of Louisiana and the School Board established bonding districts as a means of paying for new construction projects at the individual school level.
Also, existing tax revenue was allotted and specified by law to specific items, none of which were construction items in schools.
Using the existing sales tax revenue to pay for the work is legal, said Holly Holland, spokeswoman for the Calcasieu Parish school system.
Voters in Ward 1 approved a 20-year, 1.5-cent sales tax for Sales Tax District 3 — the Moss Bluff-Gillis area — on July 15, 2000.
The proposition, which set the stage for construction of Moss Bluff Middle, comprised the early renewal of a sales tax passed in 1992 and the authority to issue 20-year bonds.
The ballot item, which passed by a vote of 1,073-631, said proceeds from the tax would be used “for acquiring and/or improving lands for building sites and playgrounds, purchasing, erecting, maintaining and/or improving school buildings and other related facilities, and acquiring equipment and furnishings therefor.”
Holland said the proposition allowed the School Board to issue $14.77 million in bonds and use the proceeds to build the school and finish other projects.
“Any of the sales tax funds collected above the amount needed to repay the outstanding bonds is required to be used in Sales Tax District 3 on capital outlay,” she wrote in an email.
She said the School Board will use the excess proceeds to pay for construction of the gym and band room at Sam Houston High.
She noted that the Sales Tax District 3 levy, which is assessed only in Ward 1, is unrelated to the sales tax used to fund school system salaries — a half-cent tax levied parishwide.
For more information, visit www.calcasieusalestax.org.
Parish: Opening date of park coming soon
When will River Bluff Park open?
“The current phase of River Bluff Park in Moss Bluff is wrapping up, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony and park opening will be scheduled in November,” Parish Administrator Bryan Beam wrote in an email.
“The date for the opening will be announced soon.”
For more information, visit www.cppj.net.
