Jeff Davis Parish.com
Leaning to the Right Index of Articles
November 7, 2006
2% Road Tax has
overwhelming 60% voter approval!
What’s Next?
New Opportunities & New
Possibilities?
Now that the 2% road tax issue is behind us, the Police Jury will soon begin to modify it’s plans and begin paving roads and making necessary purchases, in 2K7, in order to maintain the new roads as well as the old ones. It is expected; they will revamp their phase 1 road plans, which will be a modified version of the pre-election plans. In Hathaway, voters supported the tax 226 in favor with 167 against. Parish wide, it was 1956 (60%) for and 1311 (40%) against. Now that overwhelming approval has been granted they can now look more realistically on which roads are most economical to pave. I'm going to predict that the success of the initial plan of which roads get paved first is contingent on the current jurors remaining in office. If you vote them out, you change the plan. Eventually, they will probably get around to paving all of them in the next 20 years. We will all need to exercise patience for the next 20 years because changes and improvements to roads, won’t occur over night.
Some communities should begin to prepare themselves after their gravel roads are converted to pavement, for a few possibilities. There will sure to be traffic issues on the blacktop such as speeding, and law enforcement will need the resources for more patrols to cover the new mileage. You can expect the sheriff’s office to come for more tax dollars, shortly after the first the year in preparation to cover the areas with more staff, more vehicles, equipment, and maybe even a sub-station etc. (Updated: A sales tax election by the JDPSO was placed on the ballot shortly after the first of the year and then passed on 7/21/07, I was right on my 7/21/06 prediction, I was wrong on the reason or the sales pitch they used for it)
With newly paved roads, new housing opportunities are a greater possibility. It is universally agreed that paved roads will improve property values. With increased property values come new assessments and more tax dollars paid by property owners that fall outside of the homestead exemption threshold. There is no way to prevent those, whose property values have improved, from cashing in, if they elect to do so. You have aging property owners that are not making much money off of their crops anymore. With a paved road along their frontage, better retirement opportunities are within reach, in the form of sub-divisions.
One of the major influences behind this tax proposal was about real estate more so than getting paved roads to the masses. There has been pressure from real estate developers and property owners, looking to build sub-divisions, trailer parks, individual family plots and/or rental properties. This was mentioned in the first article of the JDN several months ago, but quietly fell by the wayside. This puts into perspective and answers the questions of “why this road and not that one”. This is all good of course and spells growth for the community and additional taxes for more roads.
Hurricane’s Rita and Katrina, displaced a large segment of the Louisiana population, many are still floundering, undecided on where they will finally make “home”. Real estate developers and land owners are looking to seize the opportunity and are wanting in on the action. In some cases you have landowners that own frontage property along a 1 mile stretch of gravel, soon to be blacktop. What was once farm land could now be re-zoned to residential. It’s all about sub-divisions, trailer parks and with a little luck and creative effort, maybe some government funded housing projects. Many people just wanted their roads black-topped. They were tired of gravel roads and people were discouraged from moving into the rural areas because of them. Others have loftier goals.
With the passage of the 2% sales tax, it is possible that we have set in motion new growth opportunities for the Hathaway community. It is only natural for landowners to cash in. With growth, comes families, with their school age children. This growth could deliver more revenue to the school system and to Hathaway’s Maintenance fund. Unfortunately for Hathaway High School, it cannot support much growth. However, there are always options to deal with that and we can cross that bridge when we get to it. No immediate options, without more taxes comes to mind. While not very popular, the re-drawing of district lines is a possibility and school consolidation is another. Unfortunately we will have to wait till things evolve over many years. We’ll have to wait till a time when the controversy of this 2% election is forgotten and this article has been long forgotten. People of the community may scratch their heads and wonder what happened. We won’t remember that our gravel roads, were once a buffer against growth we really didn’t strive for. Those dusty roads were not very appealing, and acted as somewhat of a barrier against “white flight”.
What’s next?
As the Police Jury modifies their approach on road repairs and construction we
will begin to see landowners and real estate developers jockeying for position
to get their cash cows paved first. These areas will be a priority because they
are closely tied to economic development, and will result in more cash going to
the Police Jury coffers. Then there the self-serving projects and the good-ole’
boy projects. Maybe, just maybe there will be something left for us little
people.
Then, the impact to the school system and law enforcement will require
additional taxes, so we can expect them to come with their hand out in short
order. Look for that some time next year.
You may have heard about my 1/3rd rule where I only believe 1/3rd of what politicians say and only expect 1/3rd of what they promise. I use another rule. Always keep politicians in want! If they want a 2% tax, hold out, and only give them 1%. Leave them with wanting more. You only have 2 hopes of affecting the political machine. Both are at the polls. One is ousting incumbents, which rarely happens, and the other against taxation. Unfortunately, we voted for a road improvement plan and a tax that was all tied together to our present police jurors. If you oust a juror at the next election, you change the road plan. Isn't politics fun? Now that we have handed them $40-50 million plus, over the next 20 years, they are no longer in want and with the idea of ousting an incumbent, putting the current road plan at risk, we are out of options in exacting change. With their pockets full, and your pockets empty, don’t expect to capture their attention with your issues. One thing is certain, growth for Hathaway is inevitable. Whatever happens, we will not remember what it was that got us there.