The Louisiana Municipal Association calls on Congress to include aid to struggling local governments in the next pandemic relief package.
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker says they’ve been hammered by dual disasters in last year’s tornado and the pandemic. To survive this period they need federal aid.
“If we could just get the same protection that small businesses had with the Payroll Protection Program that would really help us out. I really encourage Congress to look at this,” says Walker.
Woodworth Mayor David Butler says small towns like his are already on tight budgets dedicated to just the essentials. They’ve seen a 10-12 percent drop in sales tax revenue, and declining franchise fees.
“Our budget is about 4.7 million dollars and when we first looked into this we’d be losing a loss of about a half-million dollars. We’ve had to flex some personnel already,” says Butler.
Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter expects sales tax revenue to be down 6-12 percent, and gaming revenue, which makes up a large portion of the budget to be down by up to 15 percent.
“The fiscal impacts have certainly been a punch in the gut,” says Hunter.
In Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn says he’s worried about a 20 million dollar shortfall they are facing. He says it is largely due to declining sales tax revenue which makes up 70 percent of the budget.
“That is down 40 percent that is a big hit that we are taking in the City of Kenner. When you take 40 percent over the last few months from when COVID started that is not good, so it is effecting us pretty badly,” says Zahn.
The National League of Cities estimates 90 percent of municipalities will not be able to meet the needs of their citizens. Preliminary figures show a 20-30 percent loss of sales tax revenue nationwide and a 13 percent decline in overall revenue for the current fiscal year. The Louisiana Legislative Auditor in May estimated 1.1 billion dollars in lost local sales tax revenue.
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