The heads of Lafayette Parish police departments are speaking out about the proposed law enforcement sales tax on the December ballot.
The current tax used to fund the sheriff’s office is a one-cent sales tax collected only in the unincorporated areas of the parish.
This proposed tax would be a half-cent parish-wide tax.
Food and medicine would be excluded.
Tax revenue would be shared with every law enforcement agency in the parish.
Both of the police chiefs News 10 spoke to say their backing up the proposed sales tax.
They also say the revenue the sheriff’s office and their own departments would receive would benefit not only them but community members as well.
“I think that the people need to know that this money is not going to help just the sheriff’s office. it’s going to help every agency in this parish,” says Carencro police chief David Andersson
Youngsville police chief Rickey Boudreaux says, “It’s gonna not only help the sheriff’s office but it’s going to help all the municipalities. as all the police departments say, we’re one big brotherhood. so it’s going to help out the brotherhood across the board.”
Both chiefs say the supplemental money from the tax going to their officers’ paychecks may help retain those already working for the departments.
“It’s a struggle to keep good police officers at an agency. It doesn’t matter what agency you have,” says Anderson.
Boudreaux adds, “Anything we can do to keep good officers here, it helps us out too so it’s definitely a needed thing in this area.”
He also says the money from the sales tax that would stay with the sheriff’s office would also benefit each municipality.
“They help out all of the municipalities in different capacities. if we have a major crime scene, they come out with their crime scene unit, they come out with intelligence people, as well as detectives to help us out,” Boudreaux explains.
Earlier this month, News 10 asked Lafayette police about the sheriff’s tax.
They said they wouldn’t be able to comment until Sheriff Garber’s promise of sharing the revenue was in writing.
The Broussard and Scott police chiefs were unable to comment today.
