It's been a colorful couple of months since the new Council was seated: 

 

BUDGET

The FY 2025 Budget was passed unanimously. Interestingly enough this year's budget sailed through and includes approximately $1M more in expenditures and capital outlay than last year's budget despite all of the campaign hysteria over the budget from some candidates during the election.

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PROPERTY TAXES

Over the previous four years, the Council kept Property Taxes frozen at approximately half of the millages approved by the voters.  In a last minute flurry, several Council Members pushed to REDUCE the millages further.  Their reasoning was that because it was a re-assessment year for the Parish and property values were expected to rise, it would be good for the City to reduce it's millage rates so that the portion of individual tax bills that goes to the City would not go up.  The problem is that almost everybody's CITY PROPERTY TAXES ARE STILL GOING TO GO UP.  The calculation those pushing this idea was based on the total taxable value of all property in the City, not individual properties.  As everyone will soon find out, many properties values went up much more than others and will have an increase in tax - both Parish and City.  To make matters worse, re-assessments by the Parish are still ongoing so we still have no idea how much revenue the City will be losing by this arbitrary millage reduction.  Again it seems the hysteria over the budget faded quickly after the election as this arbitrary reduction in revenue passed.

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PLANNING AND ZONING

There has been spirited debate concerning the upcoming appointment to the Planning and Zoning Commission.  Council Chairman Discon and I co-sponsored a Resolution to establish a procedure for nominating a potential appointee.  However, that Resolution was amended during Council debate and after Committee selections were made by the Chairman I was no longer to be a part of the process.  The matter will be taken up at the November 21 meeting where an Appointment will likely be made.

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