Sens. White, Erdey Voted Yes, Reps. Hodges, Ivey Voted No

The Louisiana Legislature raised state sales taxes by one cent during the recently-completed Special Session, leaving the City of Central with combined local and state sales taxes of 10.5 percent.

Central already paid one-cent higher than in Baton Rouge because voters here approved an extra one-cent to fund school construction. The increase to 10.5 percent kept Central with the highest sales taxes in the state and pushed it among the highest in the nation.

Central’s legislative delegation was split on the vote with Sens. Bodi White and Dale Erdey voting for the $883 million-a-year tax increase, and Reps. Valarie Hodges and Barry Ivey voting against the higher tax.

The one-cent increase is expected to draw $3.7 million out of the Central economy each year, based on current retail sales.

Central Mayor Jr. Shelton said the higher tax won’t help Central. He worries that higher state taxes will make it much more difficult to fund local government. “Fortunately, the City of Central doesn’t need any additional taxes but what if the school board needed additional taxes to build a new high school. This tax increase puts taxes so high that voters are over their limit and won’t consider local taxes even for much-needed projects. As far as the promise that this tax will go away in 18 months, I’ll have to see it to believe it.”

Central schools Supt. Mike Faulk said you can’t raise taxes on consumers without it having an effect on consumer spending. “I do expect it to result in a slight decline in retail sales in Central during the 2016-2017 fiscal year, which will slightly reduce collections from the sales taxes imposed for Central schools.”