With 44 precincts reporting, all four tax proposals supporting hurricane levees, sewer system upgrades and expansion, school upgrades including a performing arts center and assistance for ARC of St. Charles have passed in St. Charles Parish.
Proposition 1 for the levee tax passed by 3,889 to 1,344 votes. The tax will generate $4.8 million a year beginning this year.
Some 3.6 mills would be new tax with .4 mill coming from a reduction in an existing road light millage.
Funding will cover a levee on the west bank and in Montz at an estimated cost of $300 million to be constructed to deal with the “100-year storm.”
Proposition 2 for renewal of the 2.2-mill tax for sewer system upgrades and expansion passed 3,644 to 1,584.
Parish officials say the tax revenue will be used to help fund operations and maintenance once the bonds are paid off in 2018. It will generate $2.6 million a year, also for 30 years.
Proposition 3 for the .70-mill tax for ARC of St. Charles passed 3,539 to 1,681 votes.
The tax will generate $843,000 a year for 10 years beginning this year to help pay operational costs for services to residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Saying cuts were inevitable without additional funding, ARC of St. Charles maintained unfunded mandates and changes in program costs sent the organization appealing to the St. Charles Parish Council for the tax revenue help.
The St. Charles Parish School District tax calling for a $42 million bond issue passed by 3,102 to 2,122 votes.
The bonds include $35 million for a performing arts center, as well as $4 million in renovations at Lakewood Elementary School in Luling and Albert Cammon Middle School in St. Rose, and $1.6 million to upgrade lighting at elementary schools throughout the parish.
Another $850,000 would go to safety improvements in parish schools, including installation of an electronic system to manage school visitors by scanning driver’s licenses to run the information against the national sex offender registry and make visitor passes with photographs, as well as keep an electronic log of school visits. Money also would be dedicated to doubling 440 cameras in the system.
The 20-year general obligation loan would be repaid with revenue generated from existing property taxes of up to 5.86 mills.
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