The Real Reason Your Road Isn’t Getting Fixed

By Dr. Jay Callegari

Let me start with something that often gets lost in these conversations.

Our Police Jurors are true public servants. They are patriots who care about this parish and want the best for their fellow citizens. They are doing the best they can within the system they were elected into. So if your road is not getting fixed, it is not because someone is sitting around trying to ignore you. It is not because they do not care.

It is because the system they operate under makes long term, parish wide planning extremely difficult.

The other day I saw a social media post from someone frustrated about the condition of their road. Potholes. Drainage problems. Shoulders washing out. The comments followed quickly, as they always do. “Why don’t they fix it?” “Where are our taxes going?”

If you’ve read my writing before, you know I do not like to talk about problems without offering a solution. So let’s talk about roads.

Yes, many parish roads in Avoyelles need repair. That is simply a fact. But there is no short term fix. We cannot borrow our way out of decades of deferred maintenance. We cannot beg Baton Rouge to rescue us. Eventually, we have to solve it ourselves.

Here is the reality. Louisiana has one of the lowest property tax bases in the country. Avoyelles is near the bottom even within Louisiana. That may sound good until you remember what those dollars pay for: schools, roads, drainage, libraries, health units, and parish operations. When the base is small, the margin for infrastructure is small.

During the Home Rule Charter Commission process, we invited the Parish President from St. Landry Parish to speak with us. He described how they faced the same issue. Roads were deteriorating. No one wanted to raise taxes. Individual police jurors focused on their own districts, which is understandable because that is who elects them.

Many people say politicians are corrupt. Sometimes that may be true. But often what looks like corruption is really a system that rewards district by district favoritism. The structure encourages officials to prioritize their own voters first, even when the parish as a whole would benefit from a broader plan.

St. Landry’s solution was simple in concept but bold in execution. Every parish road was evaluated and ranked. A 20 year plan was created. Every road was placed on a schedule for repair or rebuilding. Costs were calculated. The public knew when their road would be addressed and what it would cost.

I believe we could do something similar here in Avoyelles. Put a comprehensive, parish wide plan in place. Show every road. Show the timeline. Show the cost. Then let the voters decide if that is something they are willing to take on. When there is a definite plan in place, it changes the metrics. Individuals can evaluate the proposal clearly and decide whether it is worth it to them or not.

It was not magic money. It was structure and planning.

A Home Rule Charter in Avoyelles will not fix potholes tomorrow. It will not create new dollars. But it can create a governing structure capable of long term, parish wide planning instead of year to year reactions.

And it could fix far more than roads.

A different local government structure, if the right people are elected to lead it, has the opportunity to propel this parish forward. It can create clearer lines of accountability, better budgeting discipline, and strategic planning that looks beyond the next election cycle. It can position Avoyelles not just to patch problems, but to build a stronger future for our children and grandchildren.

This conversation is not really about asphalt. It is about whether we want to keep managing problems district by district, or whether we want a system designed to think 20 years ahead.

Fixing a road is easy to understand. Fixing how we govern is harder.

But one leads to the other.