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La. county voters to consider sales tax for jail

0.2-percent sales tax would generate funds to build a new facility

By C1 Staff

THIBODAUX, La. — Voters will be asked in May if they’ll participate in the funding of a new Lafourche Parish Detention Center, through the addition of a 0.2-percent sales tax.

According to Fox 8 Live, the sales tax would generate $2.9 million a year and a portion of the money would be bonded out to pay for a new $30 million facility.

The current facility, built in the 1970s for 100 inmates, now houses 245. Inmate transfers to other parishes cost the county more than a million every year.

Just last week, a CO was injured by an inmate while transporting him to a cell with a working toilet.

“It is a difficult, expensive, unsafe design that’s deteriorated and obsolete, and it’s woefully inadequate in terms of the size,” Sheriff Craig Webre said.

Others who aren’t in favor of the sales tax are suggesting using surplus money from other departments. The county is already looking at one new sales tax for drainage and garbage; an additional tax would push rates to 10 percent in some areas.

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