Parish bucks state move to consolidate tax collections

An effort by the state to create consolidated sales tax collections and take those responsibilities away from local governments is opposed by the administration of St. Mary Parish Government.
Parish President David Hangriff said Wednesday at the parish council meeting that the administration is “unequivocally” against that.
Hanagriff said the issue appears to be collection of Internet purchase sales taxes. “These larger companies like Amazon they don’t want to have to deal with all these districts,” he said. He said the state could collect online sales taxes and leave collections of the remainder to local governments.
The council approved a resolution in support of the administration’s position.
In other business, Councilman Craig Mathews asked that provisions be made for cases where a resident loses a home to fire or other disaster who wishes to place a mobile home on the property while reconstructing a residence. Zoning designations often prevent them to do so, Mathews said.
Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said he would work with Mathews to formulate a method to accommodate persons in that sort of temporary situation.