Durel: Build new fire stations
LAFAYETTE — City-Parish President Joey Durel used his annual “state of the parish” speech on Wednesday to highlight the need to find money for public safety efforts, including building and staffing two new fire stations.
The need for the public safety improvements has been a central issue in recent weeks, following a plea made by Lafayette Fire Chief Robert Benoit to the City-Parish Council in January for additional resources to serve the city’s growing population.
“If we want our Fire Department to be as responsive as it is today, we must build and staff two new fire stations as soon as possible,” Durel told a crowd that filled a ballroom at the Cajundome Convention Center for his annual address.
Durel said that city-parish government is at a crossroads for public safety and must find the revenue to keep up with Lafayette’s police and fire needs.
“I believe the first priority of government is to make you safe,” he told the crowd.
Durel estimated that about 40 new firefighters would be needed to staff two new fire stations and that the Police Department is about 35 positions shy of what it should be for a city the size of Lafayette.
The Durel administration has put forward several options, all of which fall into two main categories — cut other areas of the budget to free up money for public safety or generate new revenue through a tax increase or a tax swap.
The council took up the tax swap option last month and opted to delay a vote after several councilmen expressed reservations about the measure.
The proposal was to let voters decide whether to approve a new half-cent sales tax for public safety with the understanding that two existing fire and police property taxes would expire if voters approved the sales tax.
That plan would bring a net annual revenue increase of about $10 million — gaining $16 million a year from the sales tax while losing $6 million from the expiring property tax.
Other options outlined by Durel on Wednesday included increasing property taxes, passing a new sales tax while keeping some form of the public safety property tax in place, cutting the budget in other areas or asking voters to allow a larger percentage of existing tax revenue to be used for operations.
Revenue collected from city-parish government’s existing 2-cent sales tax is restricted in its use: 65 percent of the revenue can be used for capital projects — like roads, buildings and police cars — while 35 percent can be used to fund day-to-day operating expenses, including salaries, fuel and insurance.
Voters could be asked to change that split, allowing more money to be used for operating expenses, which would allow more money to be set aside for police and fire salaries.
A re-dedication of the sales tax money, though, would create no new revenue, so any additional funds for public safety operations would come at the expense of cuts to road improvements and other capital projects, Durel said.
“There is never a perfect answer,” Durel said.
Council Chairman Jared Bellard said that before he would support asking voters for a new tax or a tax swap, he wants to ensure that public safety money cannot be found through cuts to other areas of the budget.
“Government should start having to work within its means,” he said.
The talk of more public safety needs comes as city-parish government has been struggling to keep expenses in line with revenues.
This year’s budget is already tapping savings from prior years because the estimated revenue for the year cannot meet expenses, including ever-growing costs for employee health care and retirement.
Durel also devoted much of his annual address this year to introducing the consulting firm that has begun work on Lafayette’s comprehensive plan, a guide for growth and development over the next 20 years.
The Pennsylvania planning firm Wallace, Roberts & Todd has been awarded a $1.2 million contract to develop the plan, and consultants are in town this week to tour the parish and begin meeting with community leaders.
The consulting firm is expected to begin a monthslong series of public forums and outreach sessions to hear from residents about their visions of what Lafayette should look like in the years to come.
“This is about empowering the citizens to take charge of mapping the course of their future,” said John Fernsler, with Wallace, Roberts & Todd.