EP Tax Commission discusses proposed legislation to change collections

Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 15:59

By: MICHAEL BORDELON

News Editor

The Evangeline Parish Sales/Use Tax Commission, during its meeting Wednesday, March 26, discussed a recently-proposed house bill that would call for the elimination of local tax collection offices. Taxes would then be collected directly by the state.

Administrator Mike Veillon stated there were three bills working in tandem to make this change. For these bills to pass, a two-thirds vote would be needed because it would require a constitutional amendment. If it were to pass the house and senate, it would be placed on the ballot for the people to vote on it.

Veillon said he and many associations around the state will be meeting with Rep. Jim Tucker, speaker of the house, who introduced these bills. “We want to know exactly what purpose it will serve if the state takes over local collections,” he said.

If this were to happen, Veillon stated the parish could miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax money. For example, Veillon said over $600,000 in taxes were assessed and received by the local auditors during construction of the Pine Prairie Energy Center. This was money that would not have been received without the local office. Veillon said he spoke with someone at the state office who said with the limited manpower of the state, their auditors would be focused on the larger parishes where they could receive the most money through assessments and audits and Evangeline Parish might get left behind.

Veillon also stated the local municipalities would be at the mercy of the state, waiting for the state to issue collected tax monies to those public bodies. Board member Blaine Janet said after his dealings with the state, he would expect to wait a very long time for local municipalities to receive the tax monies due to them.

Veillon added he will be sending a resolution to all public bodies in the parish to sign, showing they do not support the bills.

In other business, the board:

•Learned nearly everyone, except Pine Prairie and Chataignier, were in the red in tax collections compared to the same time last year. Veillon said the extension to the prison in Pine Prairie has helped the village maintain high tax collections.