State of Police Jury focuses on residents' ideas

Ouachita Parish Police Juror Walt Caldwell sees a problem but cannot determine an exact solution on his own.

The problem is that road maintenance costs are rapidly growing, and while tax revenue is growing as well, it's not growing fast enough to keep up.

That exact issue was the focus of a "State of the Police Jury" luncheon held Tuesday.

"We are at risk of becoming a pothole-patching operation," he said. "There is no plan here. We are going to the public, and we're trying to explain the problem in hopes of finding a solution."

The discrepancy in cost and revenue is no hidden secret. Caldwell has been making presentations on it for months now. However, his next step involves the opposite.

He wants to hear from the residents.

"We've met with both (Chambers of Commerce in the parish)," he said. We've received their input and we have an open dialogue with them. We're open to receiving new options. We really are wanting the comments from the public."

There are several options available, though the Police itJury and residents do not support all of them. Some of them include doing nothing, a sales tax increase, a franchise fee on electricity, structure tax, property tax, parcel fee or road and drainage districts.

The process is taking longer than expected for the jurors, in part because they're not receiving the response they hoped to get.

Just one person in a crowd of around 100 offered support for any of the eight options presented.

"I think the sales tax option is the best," Wade Earnheart said. "I've always felt a consumption tax is the way we should go with everything. The more people consume, the more taxes they should pay."

Caldwell said it's going to take more effort to get the community talking.

"It's taken longer than we expected," he said. "I don't think we've reached enough people in the community. I think it's going to be an additional six months to a year.

"It's urgent, but we're not in a hurry. We want to make sure we do this right."

West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce President Courtney Hornsby said she is glad to see the Police Jury is taking the input they are receiving seriously.

"When looking at the presentation today, we were glad to see that some of these options (that we offered) had been fleshed out," she said. "When we saw this presentation a few months ago, there wasn't as many options.

"We'd like to encourage the public to continue to offer that feedback. They're trying to come up with options that the public would support."

Caldwell said the Police Jury will take as much time as it needs to make sure the community's voice is heard.

"We're not going to implement a solution without public support," he said. "We're not going to make a tax proposal or implement a fee without community support. It's not going to work if we don't have support."

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