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The turnout was small but the margin was big Saturday, when St. Mary voters approved a new sales tax designed to provide raises to teachers and support staff members.
The proposed sales tax drew 3,052 yes votes, or 62%, to 1,904 no votes, or 38%, according to complete but unofficial returns from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.
The unofficial turnout was only 14.9%, but support for the measure was evident across the parish among those who voted. The proposition won majorities in 44 of 51 precincts. Tie votes were recorded in two other precincts.
The proposition asked voters whether they want to pay a new 0.45% sales tax that would raise about $3.85 million a year. The money will go to pay for a $3,000 annual raise for 688 certified employees, mostly teachers, and a $1,500 raise for 498 noncertified employees. The tax is authorized for five years and will go into effect this summer.
Proponents said the pay hike is needed to attract and keep good employees and to maintain the parish's standing among the top quarter of Louisiana's public school systems.
Opponents said the tax will add a burden to an economy that was slumping even before restrictions were imposed to fight the spread of COVID-19.
“I’m pleased as punch for our teachers and support staff,” School Board President Kenneth Alfred said Sunday.
Parish President David Hanagriff, who emerged in recent months as the most outspoken opponent of the tax proposal, agreed with Alfred on that point: “I am happy for the teachers and support staff,” Hanagriff said.
But “I’m saddened for the School Board,” Hanagriff said, “and the School Board isn’t going to change.”
Aside from concerns about the new tax’s economic impact, Hanagriff criticized the board for being unwilling to compromise on the proposal and to reduce costs at the Central Office Complex before turning to the voters for a new tax.
Hanagriff also noted that the proposition was the only item on Saturday’s St. Mary ballot, so the voting power of more than 1,100 School Board employees in line for raises had more power to swing the election.
“If you’re going to have a tax, especially a tax increase, it shouldn’t be on the ballot by itself,” Hanagriff said. “That in itself is wrong.”
Unsurprisingly, Alfred looks at the turnout in a different way.
“I was talking to a parish councilman, and I said the people spoke,” Alfred said. “He said, ‘Fifteen percent of the people spoke.’
“And I said, ‘No, the people spoke, and 85% of the people didn’t care about it one way or another. …’
“Forty-five cents on $100 isn’t going to do a lot of damage to anybody’s economy.”
Alfred also noted that the School Board reduced the original December 2019 proposal for a 0.5% tax and eliminated a provision that would have put some of the proceeds into a technology fund, all in response to criticism from state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin.
The School Board withdrew a tax proposal from the ballot last year after COVID-19 delays and a disagreement with the Secretary of State’s Office over the ballot language. Even this year, after putting the sales tax on the ballot for the second time, the School Board had to make the case for the tax while unemployment is high and COVID remains a concern.
At a School Board meeting nine days before the election, Alfred spoke out strongly against what he said are inflated claims of economic damage from the St. Mary Industrial Group and others. He said the only criticism he saw on social media came from people who saw that his mask slipped beneath his nose as he spoke. The other comments were positive, he said.
“After that, I got fired up,” Alfred said.
Elsewhere in the region, Assumption Parish voters went to the polls to help elect a U.S. representative from the 2nd Congressional District. The seat is open because Democrat Cedric Richmond accepted a job in the Biden administration.
In a 15-candidate field, Democrats Troy Carter (36%) and Karen Carter Peterson (23%) won places in the April 24 runoff.
The 2nd Congressional District is represented by the only black representative and the only Democrat in the six-member Louisiana House delegation.
Voters in the 5th Congressional District in east central and northern Louisiana filled the seat left vacant when Re-publican Luke Letlow, 41, died of COVID-related complications Dec. 29, less than a month after winning election to the House.
Letlow's widow, Republican Julia Letlow, won an outright victory in a 12-candidate primary field. Letlow received 65% of the vote.

St. Mary Parish
PW School Board -- .45% S&U Tax - SB - 5 Yrs.
Early & Absentee Reporting - 1 of 1 parishes
Election Day Reporting - 51 of 51 precincts
3,052 YES 62%
1,904 NO 38%
Total: 4,956
Unofficial Turnout: 14.9%

U S. Representative -- 2nd Congressional District
Early & Absentee Reporting - 10 of 10 parishes
Election Day Reporting - 657 of 657 precincts
3,218 Chelsea Ardoin (REP) 3%
598 Belden "Noonie Man" Batiste (IND) 1%
9,237 Claston Bernard (REP) 10%
34,396 Troy A. Carter (DEM) 36%
21,670 Karen Carter Peterson (DEM) 23%
20,151 Gary Chambers, Jr. (DEM) 21%
403 Harold John (DEM) 0%
288 J. Christopher Johnson (DEM) 0%
94 Brandon Jolicoeur (NOPTY) 0%
122 Lloyd M. Kelly (DEM) 0%
2,349 "Greg" Lirette (REP) 2%
323 Mindy McConnell (LBT) 0%
699 Desiree Ontiveros (DEM) 1%
244 Jenette M. Porter (DEM) 0%
754 Sheldon C. Vincent, Sr. (REP) 1%
Total: 94,546
Unofficial Turnout: 17.9%

U.S. Representative -- 5th Congressional District
Early & Absentee Reporting - 24 of 24 parishes
Election Day Reporting - 825 of 825 precincts
Sandra "Candy" Christophe (DEM) 27%
5,497 Chad Conerly (REP) 5%
402 "Jim" Davis (NOPTY) 0%
464 Allen Guillory (REP) 0%
929 Robert Lansden (REP) 1%
67,199 Julia Letlow (REP) 65%
131 Jaycee Magnuson (REP) 0%
62 Horace Melton III (REP) 0%
236 M.V. "Vinny" Mendoza (IND) 0%
67 Richard H. Pannell (REP) 0%
334 Sancha Smith (REP) 0%
36 Errol Victor, Sr. (REP) 0%
Total: 103,609
Unofficial Turnout: 21.2%

The City of Morgan City held its annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday at Lawrence Park. Children up to 8 years old hunted for the colored eggs containing the piece of paper that would winner one of three chocolate Easter Bunnies for each age group.

After nearly a year and a half, St. Mary voters will have the last word Saturday on the School Board’s proposed sales tax for teacher and staff pay.
If passed, the proposition would enact a new 0.45% sales tax parishwide.
Polls will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday. Bring your photo ID.
According to the ballot language, the tax would raise $3.85 million a year. The School Board plan is to give certified employees, mostly teachers, a $3,000 annual raise. Other employees would get a $1,500 raise.
The school system has 688 certified employees and 498 noncertified employees for a total of 1,186, Superintendent Teresa Bagwell said Friday.
The debate over the tax, which has grown heated at times since the push for the new levy began in December 2019, has been over whether the tax is needed to attract and keep good staffers or it would hurt the parish’s already struggling economy.
The School Board says the school system has performed well, reaching the 17th ranking among more than 70 public school systems according to the Department of Education’s district performance scores.
Yet, board members say, the average St. Mary teacher makes about $2,000 a year less than the state average.
The most vocal opposition since the proposal resurfaced in November have been Parish President David Hanagriff and the St. Mary Industrial Group, which represents local business interests.
Hanagriff kept his pledge to speak out in opposition at each Parish Council meeting for the last few months.
“Now is the worst time ever to increase any type of tax. Period,” Hanagriff said March 10.
Like other tax opponents, Hanagriff said he doesn’t oppose teacher pay hikes in general. He’s married to a teacher.
But, even aside from the economic pain inflicted by COVID-19 restrictions and the 6-year-old slump in energy prices, St. Mary is in no position to increase sales taxes, Hanagriff says.
The School Board has pointed to St. Mary sales tax rates that are lower than those in surrounding parishes. Hanagriff counters that St. Mary is flanked by larger retail centers.
“We have to be lower than everybody else,” Hanagriff told the council.
The School Board also has been unwilling to compromise on the tax proposal or to reduce administrative costs as enrollment has declined, Hanagriff said.
At a lively School Board meeting March 11, board President Kenneth Alfred said Hanagriff is showing poor leadership and accused SMIG of making unfounded claims about the economic damage that could result from the tax hike.
“The only thing that I can surmise is that these people are what I call ‘CAVE people,’ Citizens Against Virtually Everything,” Alfred said.
In 2019, the School Board first proposed a 0.5% sales tax that would have been dedicated to a technology fund as well as to staff pay. Faced with opposition, especially from state Sen. Bret Allain, who sits on the State Bond Commission, the board dropped the technology fund dedication and trimmed the tax proposal to 0.45%.
The slimmed-down proposal won the required approval by the Bond Commission on the second try, but the School Board withdrew the measure from the ballot last year over concerns about the ballot language developed by the Secretary of State’s Office.
As contentious as the debate has been, the tax issue doesn’t seem to have caught fire among voters.
Seven hundred St Mary people voted early in person March 6-13, and 686 mailed ballots had been received as of Thursday, the Registrar of Voters Office said. That’s about 4.2% of St. Mary’s registered voters.
For the Nov. 3 election, with contested races for president, Congress, judge posts and Morgan City mayor on the ballot, about a third of St. Mary voters cast early ballots.
Elsewhere in the region, Assumption voters will help pick a new U.S. representative in the 2nd Congressional District. Fifteen candidates have qualified to run as a potential successor to U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, who has accepted an adviser post in the Biden administration.
Another congressional race seeks a replacement for Republican Luke Letlow, who died from COVID-19 complications after winning last year’s race in north Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District. The favorite there is Letlow’s widow, Julia Letlow.

With billions in federal stimulus dollars headed to Louisiana, deciding how much money to spend and how to spend it during this year’s two-month fiscal legislative session will be more complex than usual, members of the State Bond Commission said Thursday.
State government will be getting more than $3 billion and local governments, collectively, will get about $2 billion as part of the American Rescue Plan.
“We need to look at those dollars as a first means of providing financing for projects so that we don’t have to bond things, so that we don’t have to tap into the general fund for things,” Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said.
The Bond Commission includes representatives of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state, along with legislative leaders. The state treasurer chairs the commission.
Dardenne, who is Gov. John Bel Edwards’ lead budget official, said the administration is creating a matrix laying out available sources of funding, who will get the money, what are the limitations on how the money can be spent and the time frame during which the money must be spent. The federal government has not issued the official guidance, he said.
State officials, however, do know there will be fewer restrictions than were in place in last year’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The administration would like to use at least some of the state’s money to replenish the fund that pays for unemployment benefits and to improve sewer, water and broadband infrastructure.
State Treasurer John Schroder said he hoped some of the money would be used to chip away at some of the state’s $7.5 billion in debt.
“I see this as an opportunity to make up some ground,” he said.
State Sen. Bret Allain, who chairs his chamber’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, said state government won’t be able to tell local leaders how to spend their share of the money. But for local projects requesting state funding, the Louisiana Legislature might allow locals to move their projects up on the list of priorities by committing to a larger match using their stimulus dollars, Allain said.
The commission approved the town of Sterlington’s request to refinance debt tied to a sports complex a previous town administration had approved. A state-appointed administrator has been trying to get the town’s finances in order since 2019.
Many cities and towns across the state may be facing similar problems, which could be addressed with the federal dollars, commission members said.
“We let [local governments] hang themselves, and we don’t stop it,” said Sen. Bodi White, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. “Many other cities in our state are in that shape, they just haven’t called the notes yet.”