Board acts to set up funding plan

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Jun 18, 2009 - Page: 4B

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AMITE — The Tangipahoa Parish School Board took steps this week to set up legal mechanisms for proposed new school taxes to help pay for a nearly $200 million school desegregation plan awaiting court and voter approval.

The board activated a new parishwide educational facilities improvement district and established a new parishwide bonding district Tuesday.

If federal court backing is granted to the plan, the facilities district would ask voters for authority to levy a new 1-cent parishwide sales tax to pay for school operations and maintenance, officials said.

In the plan, school officials have proposed entering into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the district and using its revenue to pay for $12 million in operations for proposed themed-magnet schools.

The schools are a key voluntary desegregation tool, school officials have said.

Only East Baton Rouge Parish and Zachary public schools have used the districts to levy sales taxes, according to Louisiana Bond Commission documents.

A 1997 state law, which the School Board’s lead desegregation attorney, Charles Patin Jr., helped write, grants authority to activate the districts to 26 school systems in Louisiana. Under the law, the districts may levy up to a 1-cent sales tax.

With parishwide bonding districts, voters will be asked for authority to issue bonds backed with property taxes for part of $187.4 million in school construction proposed in the plan.

School officials have said that with voter approval, the parishwide bonding district would consolidate school debts and issue new bonds, all paid with up to 29.5 mills.

The parish presently has several bonding districts with varying debt levels and millage rates. An existing 1-cent parishwide school sales tax renewed in 2007 also will be used to back bonds to pay for school construction, the school plan says.

Once activated Tuesday night, the five directors whom the School Board appointed to the facilities district took the oath of office and held their first meeting.

The district directors will serve six-year terms and are the following:

• Chairman Logan Guess, retired banker with AmSouth Bank and former School Board member from 1990 to 1994.
• Vice Chairman James Stewart, sales manager with Charter Business in Hammond.
• Secretary Sandy Davis, a certified public accountant.
• Treasurer Terry Brown, vice president of lending at First Bank and Trust of Louisiana and who works in Hammond.
• Daryl Ferrara, board chairman of the Hammond Chamber of Commerce and vice president and Hammond branch manager for Hancock Bank.