Deshotel, Jones differ on garbage tax

By RAYMOND L. DAYE
Rep. Daryl Deshotel is at odds with the former Police Jury president over whether the current 3/4-cent sales tax for solid waste management is sufficient to continue parishwide residential garbage collection.
Deshotel says sales tax collections have increased by 30 percent over the past five years, resulting in healthy annual surpluses in the Solid Waste Fund. For that reason, Deshotel said he recommends voters who did not vote early to reject both the 1/4-cent sales tax and 7-mill property tax.
“I believe the Police Jury should try to negotiate with the company and reassess what is needed to continue the parishwide residential garbage program,” Deshotel (R-Hessmer) said. “There is a surplus of between $4.5 and $5 million in the Solid Waste Fund. If both of these taxes passed, that surplus would grow by about $2.5 million a year.
“The last thing we want to do is to over-tax people,” Deshotel continued. “We have time to study the issue more and come up with a plan. The fact is, there is enough money from the current tax to support the parishwide program on a year-to-year basis.”
The tax propositions were planned based on pre-COVID sales tax revenue but during COVID sales tax increased greatly in Avoyelles Parish.
JONES DISAGREES
Police Juror Charles Jones of Marksville said Deshotel and other anti-tax voices are looking at a “snapshot” of the parish sales tax collection “that isn’t real. It is due to a lot of federal stimulus money that came into the parish during COVID. That stimulus money is not there now.
“I am holding to my numbers,” Jones, a past jury president, continued. “I have been dealing with the Police Jury budget for 12 years, and I can tell you the figures they are using are not real. If we kick the can down the road, it will come back on us.”
Deshotel has recommended that instead of committing to a five-year contract, the Police Jury should negotiate a three-year contract with two one-year extensions that can be canceled in the event the contract price is higher than the parish can afford.
Jones said he has had that “very difficult conversation” with the parish’s collection/disposal contractor “and the minimum they will consider is a five-year contract. They said they have to enter into a multi-year lease of equipment to handle our contract. If we cancel after a year, they are stuck with paying the lease on equipment they can’t use. I asked them for a year-to-year contract and they will not do it.”
Police Jury President Kirby Roy said that after meeting with Deshotel and other parish officials, he understood the projections about the Solid Waste Fund’s financial health were based on old numbers and prior to the receipt of federal COVID stimulus funds.
Roy said if Deshotel’s predictions hold true “It was concluded the funds would be there to possibly continue the program on a year-to-year basis without any additional taxes.” However, Roy said he still believes “we need one of the taxes to pass in order to continue residential pickup. If we don’t have one of them, probably the sales tax, it leaves us without a cushion to fall back on.
“We may be able to get by for the next two years,” Roy continued, “but then we would have to come back to the voters with a tax proposition, pay the election costs, and go through all of that.”
If Jones is correct that the recent increase in sales tax collections will drop due to the absence of the COVID stimulus checks into the economy, both taxes would be required to pay for the anticipated costs of a new parishwide solid waste contract.
The sharp diffence in those predictions led Roy at one point earlier this week to consider resigning as Police Jury president. He has since reconsidered and will finish his term as president, which ends Dec. 31.
Deshotel said Roy should continue serving as president and called his offer to resign “a knee-jerk reaction to his being caught off-guard by realizing he was using incorrect figures in his comments. Kirby has worked tirelessly to promote the betterment of Avoyelles and has been a great leader.”
Roy said he has received a lot of encouragement from fellow-jurors, officials and constituents since his offer to resign.
“It was just a punch in the gut kind of thing,” Roy said. “I just felt like I was caught in the middle, dealing with projections that indicated a shortfall in the Solid Waste Fund and then new figures indicating an increase in collections.”
Jones said the “old numbers” are “historically accurate. The recent numbers are not. Nothing has changed in the past few years except this parish has lost population. Are more people making higher salaries? No. Have there been new industries locating in the parish? No. The only difference since 2019 has been the federal stimulus money people received during the COVID pandemic.”
‘ALL-OR-NOTHING’
Deshotel said he had advised Police Jury officials to abandon the “all-or-nothing” argument for the taxes. He said he decided to take a more detailed look into the Solid Waste Fund’s status after receiving many requests from constituents concerning whether the two taxes are really needed to continue the garbage collection program.
He also said he had a problem with the 1/4-cent sales tax being a permanent tax that would not have to be renewed in 10 years.
“I don’t want my comments to be taken as being negative or anti-Police Jury,” Deshotel said. “In fact, what I am talking about is actually great news for Avoyelles.”
The Solid Waste Fund surpluses “were not only a result of the increased revenue, but of a good budget and good management of the fund. Avoyelles should be proud,” he added.
Deshotel emphasized that he does not believe there was any intent to mislead the public in the Police Jury’s pro-tax statements. Jurors developed the propositions “almost two years ago,” choosing to wait until the November 2022 election date rather than an earlier one.
During that time, the parish let their old garbage contract expire and approved a one-year contract that will expire on Dec. 31.
Roy said the Police Jury’s regular monthly meeting will be on Election Day. The results of the election will not be known as of the meeting time.
“I will call a special meeting for that Thursday (Nov. 10) to discuss what we do about the solid waste program in light of the election results,” he noted.
Jones said the Police Jury had asked Deshotel to get legislative approval for the parish to seek a 1/2-cent sales tax — which would have been 1/4-cent over the limit for local sales taxes.
“He refused,” Jones said. “He told us he didn’t want to be responsible for hiking the parish sales tax above the state limit. If we could’ve done that, we wouldn’t be having this discussion now. The problem is that some privileged people who own property don’t want to pay any more taxes.”
Jones said Avoyelles has one of the highest sales tax level in the state and the third-lowest property tax rate. Most of the property taxes are paid by utilities, pipelines and other industrial and business property owners, he noted.
NUMBERS
Jones said the 1/4-cent sales tax will generate about $900,000 a year and the 7-mill property tax will yield $1.2 million. He believes the 3/4-cent sales tax will bring in about $3.4 million a year.
The next contract will probably be $4 million a year, after a Consumer Price Index adjustment is added, Jones said. In addition to the residential collection/disposal contract, the Police Jury provides debris collection and disposal at the Parish Barn dump site and old tires, scrap metal and white goods collection and disposal.
Jones also noted that the anticipated $1.2 million in property tax would not be available until January 2024.
Deshotel said his review of the budget numbers shows the 1/4-cent sales tax dedicated to parish roads has averaged about $1.3 million over the past five years. He said the Solid Waste Fund had almost $435,000 in surplus in 2019, over $760,000 in 2020, $1.67 million in 2021. The 3/4-cent for solid waste generated $4.5 million last year and is expected to total $4.7 million this year, he added.
Deshotel said his numbers do not consider expenditures of Solid Waste Fund reserves for construction projects at the Parish Barn and other non-solid waste expenses, but only the excess of revenue over actual solid waste costs.