News, sports and entertainment for Richland Parish, La.

Letter to the Editor

Vote no on all taxes this fall

To the Editor:
The Richland Parish Police Jury, Richland Parish School Board, Louisiana Tax Commission (through parish tax assessors), our Democratic governor and our Congressional delegation all seem intent on raising our taxes anyway possible and usually vote YES on almost any tax it seems.
Real estate taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes, etc., are high enough already for our parish and state.
In fact, I recently read where Louisiana already has the record for highest state sales tax in our nation. So please vote NO on any tax placed on the ballot and call your juror, state representative, senator and the school board and request each of them to resist any further taxation on our people.
These various entities that are seemingly always needing more and more and more help and assistance through taxes simply need to learn to manage their agencies and make the necessary efforts to live within budgetary constraints (like we all do in our own homes and businesses).
We need managers and directors in all these agencies who properly manage a budget and not have these mismanaged agencies who are always wanting more salary, more benefits (such as the part-time police juror salary increase secretly inserted into their budget and their full health benefits for their part-time position). At one time, it was a privilege to run for these offices as a public service but no longer, it seems.
The recent article in the Beacon-News about the police jury’s recent meeting and their obsession with taxing our over-burdened taxpayers in this parish brought up the Richland Parish Library needing tax money as well as the Richland COA and fire districts.
A couple of years back, I attended the jury meeting and the parish librarian was asked how much money they had in their various accounts and her reply was “a little over $2 million. Just recently they spent approximately $1 million on remodeling their existing facilities. And now the jury wants to ask for a tax to replenish the library’s bank accounts? Oh really? That was quite an extensive remodeling job.
The Richland COA received a $100,000 grant from the State of Louisiana not too long ago and the first thing director Beth Whatley did was to immediately seek an increase in salary for herself as well as other paid employees. What she failed to realize was that this grant money could not be utilized for salaries but for one-time expenses to assist the elderly. She then rescinded the illegal salary increases but then not long afterward she convinced a majority of the board of directors to grand her and other paid employees another salary increase.
It appears this agency is more interested in securing salary increases than they are in taking care of the needs of the elderly in Richland Parish. Is it any wonder that this director is now begging the taxpayers to bail out her mismanagement of the COA? They receive income from the bingo parlor, donations, police jury and state and federal assistance as well as being re-imbursed on meals.
Anytime any of these agencies realize that they have exceeded their budget, their first thought seems always to be “Well, let’s call for another tax on the people.”
It is time for the hard-working people of our parish to stand up and give these various entities a resounding NO to any request for more taxes -- unless and until their requests can be individually verified as legitimate (which at this time appears not to be the case).
One juror even wanted tax benefits for fire districts who are self funded through fire taxes. What a fiasco.
I suggest term limits for police jury members.
Sincerely,
Gene Stewart
Postmaster (Ret.)
and Taxpaper
Rayville

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