While city-parish officials come to terms with the defeat of two tax proposals Nov. 6, attention is turning to important issues on the Dec. 8 ballot in Lafayette Parish, including a proposal that would change the way the city and parish are governed.

Two proposed new parish-wide property taxes, for the jail and district court, were soundly defeated Nov. 6, failing in every precinct in Lafayette Parish.

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Voters defeat jail, district court taxes

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Robideaux: Why I opposed the taxes Nov. 6

More than 77,000 of the 154,142 registered voters in Lafayette Parish participated in the election for a turnout of 51 percent, according to Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court Louis Perret.

"We have seen (that large a turnout) in years past," he said, "but it certainly was not expected" in this election.

Perret had predicted turnout would be 35 percent or less.

Officials, he said, are hoping enthusiasm remains high for the next four weeks so voter turnout will be high Dec. 8.

Three local issues on that ballot are:

A proposition that would split the nine-person Lafayette City-Parish Council into a five-person city council for Lafayette and a five-person parish council for the entire parish.

A half-cent sales tax to be collected parish-wide, expected to generate $25 million a year for the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office.

A 10-mill property tax expected to generate about $3.9 million a year for fire protection in unincorporated parts of the parish.

Fix the Charter founder: Separate Lafayette city council fair thing to do.

The day after the Nov. 6 election, Fix the Charter, a local group of volunteers who formed a political committee, released an online video explaining why the Lafayette Parish Home Rule Charter needs amending to create a city council and a parish council.

Voters in 1992 approved the Home Rule Charter consolidating governmental functions of the city and the parish. In 1996, Lafayette Consolidated Government was launched.

Since then, five municipalities in the parish elect a mayor and council for their city. They also vote on the mayor-president and a city-parish council person for their district.

Lafayette residents don't have their own mayor or city council. They only vote on the mayor-president and city-parish council person for their district.

RELATED: Separate city and parish councils, what it means

Of the nine-person city-parish council, only one district is solely composed of city of Lafayette residents. The other eight districts have city and parish residents.

When an issue confined to the city of Lafayette requires a decision, such as Lafayette Utilities System rates, each of the nine council members have one vote, regardless of whether they represent all city of Lafayette residents or only a few.

"The thing we want to make sure people understand is that we believe that only city voters should be able to make a decision about the future of LUS, whether that's a sale, a lease or a management contract," Fix the Charter founder Kevin Blanchard said.

LUS is owned by the city, not the parish.

Some "misguided folks," Blanchard said, have been saying the charter amendment would make it easier to sell, lease or hand over management of LUS. The charter amendment, he said, makes it clear that a vote of city residents would be required before LUS could be sold, leased or managed by a third party.

READ MORE: What the charter amendment means for LUS, council term limits

It's also unclear now if only the Lafayette Public Utilities Authority or the entire city-parish council decides LUS matters, Blanchard said. The charter amendment would ensure only the city council would make those decisions.

"It just comes down to fairness," he said.

In 2011, voters rejected a plan to abolish consolidated government. Don Bacque', who opposed that plan, has voiced support for the Dec. 8 charter amendment.

For more information, visit fixthecharter.com.

Law enforcement tax to fund more deputies and pay down Willow Street safety center debt.

A half-cent parish-wide sales tax on the Dec. 8 ballot is not the same tax as the 2.94-mill parish-wide property tax voters defeated Nov. 6.

Money generated by the defeated tax would have gone to the parish government to maintain, operate and improve the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.

State law requires the parish government to provide a jail and pay to maintain and operate the jail.

The new half-cent sales tax on the Dec. 8 ballot would be used to to put 50 additional law enforcement officers on the streets and 40 additional deputies in the jail, said Lt. John Mowell, public information office with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office.

The tax revenue also would be used, he said, to pay down the $18 million debt Sheriff Mark Garber inherited from his predecessor for building the public safety center on Willow Street.

The Sheriff's Office, Mowell said, employs around 875 people. The tax would be used for payroll and benefits for employees. Another thing Garber inherited is the need to borrow money to meet payroll the second half of the year.

READ MORE: Can Sheriff share tax revenues with Lafayette?

Garber and his legal team are finalizing details of a covenant that "identifies what the goals are for the Sheriff's Office, exactly what we need to accomplish and why the Sheriff is proposing a tax," Mowell said. "It will outline specific areas he wants to ... do to have the most capable law enforcement for this area."

The covenant, he said, will be filed in the parish courthouse for anyone to see and is "a contract between the sheriff and voters."

Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office employees created The Comprehensive Law Enforcement Advancement Reappropriation PAC in March. As of Oct. 29, the PAC had raised $74,000 and spent $27,664, according to a campaign finance report, leaving $46,436 for a final pre-election push.

The CLEAR PAC's donors as of Oct. 31 included Acadian Ambulance Service, $20,000; Center for Integrated Behavioral Health of Baton Rouge (a substance abuse rehab center), $10,000; Louisiana Safety Systems, $10,000; Brent R. Milam of Lafayette, $10,000; The Life Group International of Baton Rouge, $10,000; Don Mashburn and DW Elmore Consulting, $5,000 each; Anakata, $2,000; and KB-PAC of Baton Rouge, $2,000.

The PAC spending so far includes $22,000 in August on polling by Lincoln Strategy Group of Arizona, and $3,850 on Oct. 8 for a poll by Arsement Media Group.

For more information about the tax, visit lafayettelawenforcement.com.

Unincorporated Lafayette Parish property owners are asked to pay a property tax for fire protection

Right now, property owners in unincorporated parts of Lafayette Parish don't pay a tax specifically for fire protection.

That could change if voters in unincorporated areas approve a 10-mill property tax on the Dec. 8 ballot.

RELATED: 10-mill property tax on Dec. 8 ballot

Rural fire protection, largely provided by volunteer fire departments, is funded through the parish general fund, which gets money from sales taxes collected in unincorporated areas.

But annexation of unincorporated area into municipalities has drastically reduced the amount of sales taxes collected by the parish, so less and less money is available from the general fund for things such as fire protection.

Adding to the problem is the fact that the parish general fund is used to pay unfunded state mandates like the jail and courthouse, and there's even less money for fire protection, City-Parish Councilman Kevin Naquin said.

Some residents of unincorporated areas, he said, asked why the tax isn't going to be collected parish-wide. The answer is that some cities already collect a tax to fund their own fire departments. They would be double-taxed if they were included, he said.

The tax is expected to generate around $3.9 million a year. About $1.2 million, Naquin said, would be used to hire more firefighters and buy equipment and water trucks.

Another $1 million would be kept in reserve in case the fire district needs to buy tanker trucks. If it's not spent, the money will build up to buy land and build a fire station, he said.