The Webster Parish Library’s millage tax will be voted on in the police jury’s August meeting, but a few things have changed.
Secretary Treasurer Ronda Carnahan says new requirements for notification must be met and the tax is not thought of as a renewal, but a new tax. To be clear, the 12 mill ad valorem tax was voted on by the people and passed in May 2014. The only thing to change is some of the requirements that must be met.
Carnahan says this was the reason for the special called meeting Tuesday – to make sure they met the state requirement of at least a 30-day notification, no more than 60 days prior to the date of the millage adoption. She says the meeting between July and August is only 28 days, hence the reason for calling the special meeting.
“With a new tax, there is a requirement that notification publication requirements must be met, and we contacted the assessor’s office prior to adopting millages at our May meeting,” Carnahan said. “At that time, we were thinking of the library tax as a renewal and not a new tax. But since it was the beginning of the new 10-year period, it is considered a new tax.
“This isn’t something the voters haven’t already voted on,” Carnahan continued.
Beverly Hammett, library director, says the old tax expired Dec. 31, 2014, and the new one, passed in May 2014, went into effect this year.
“The taxing period expired Dec. 31, 2014, but we don’t get that money until 2015,” she said. “You don’t get that money until the following year. They start collecting about November, and you might get a little bit in December, but you get the majority of it (the following year) because they have until Dec. 31 to pay it. Then we get the majority of it in January, February and March of the following year.”
The library tax is set at 12 mills and expires in 2024. The tax passed in May 2014 supports the library’s operating expenses as well as those of the other branches throughout the parish.
The tax supports not only the main branch in Minden, but also the ones in Springhill, Sarepta, Cotton Valley, Sibley, Heflin and Doyline.
The library millage will be adopted at the August 4 meeting of the Webster Parish Police Jury.