Iberia council reviews millage rates, revenue

• By LAURA FAULK
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Jun 27, 2008 - Page: 3BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW IBERIA — The Iberia Parish Council held a preliminary review of potential millage rates during its regular Wednesday night meeting.

While voting on the millages will not be until July, discussion led by Parish President Ernest Freyou was for informational purposes.

Freyou said an effort was made to keep the property tax rate at a revenue neutral level.

“It wasn’t easy, believe me, it wasn’t,” Freyou said. “It was quite a challenge for us to do some of these things.”

Freyou provided a chart that showed the millage amounts from 2007, the proposed 2008 rates, the possible adjusted 2008 rates, and the maximum rates possible.  A total 31.01 mills were levied in 2007.

The 2008 rate is 26.88, but the adjusted 2008 rate rolls that amount back to 26.61. The maximum amount is 32.62 mils.

These taxes generated $8,860,008.05 in 2007. If the same rates were adopted for 2008, an additional $263,611.20 or 2.98 percent could be collected.

The adjusted 2008 rates would only collect $1,442.58 more than 2007, an increase of 0.02 percent. “

We’re just about revenue neutral,” Freyou said.

Councilman John Berard said he was worried about drawing the same criticism that the Iberia Parish School Board endured.

 “The School Board tried to do the same thing and they were accused of voodoo economics,” Berard said.

“We’re rolling it back to keep it neutral,” Council Chairman Bernard Broussard said.

The council received a positive audit report from Kolder, Champagne, Slaven and Company. The Dec. 31, 2007, ending fund balances were $29.7 million versus $24.5 million at Dec. 31, 2006.