Monroe City Council majority Democrats are determined to overcome the agenda of independent Mayor Friday Ellis with their own and by increasing taxes to do so, the Aug. 12 Council meeting demonstrated.
At it, the three Democrats, who are black, passed a resolution authorizing study of district boundaries with an eye towards mid-cycle reapportionment, which municipalities nationwide rarely do and is unprecedented in Louisiana. Those councilors spoke of potential demographic changes since the 2020 census, even though only those data legally may be used for reapportionment purposes, as well as alleged citizen dissatisfaction over the 2022 exercise hammered out by the previous Council that since then gained two new members.
By the census, Monroe has a 65 percent black population with its councilor districts having black proportions in percentage points of 14.63, 45.41, 86.35, 80.32, and 95.62 percent. In fact, District 2 has a white proportion of only 45.17, meaning Monroe has three majority-minority and one opportunity, or black plurality, district out of five, which suggests a 70 percent or more black population. And given Monroe’s population concentrations and somewhat sinuous borders, with tentacles shooting north and south, it seems difficult to draw a map that could pump up much District 2’s black population proportion.
That’s the point of this exercise by the majority. The problem from its perspective is the voting-age population in District 2 is about a 40-35 split in favor of whites, and in registration terms it’s about 48.5-45.5. If somehow it could finagle a plan that constitutionally shovels more whites from that district into other districts, they could have a map with four M/M districts likely to elect four Democrats.
And with four such districts, the increased majority could have the numbers to vitiate Ellis. His veto can stalemate much of the Council’s agenda when only three votes pass an ordinance, such as potentially a tax increase the majority passed on first reading with the pair of Republicans opposed, but four votes can override this.
In essence, the 2025 property tax rates feature an increase of 1.81 mills, as supported by the majority. That all comes from the general alimony being moved to its adjusted maximum rate, as the other several specific levies are at their adjusted maximum rates, or the rate after roll backs for increased past property values, which is lower than the rate voters authorized.
The majority kept characterizing the increase as recapturing “our” “money left on the table,” while the Republicans kept emphasizing it was the people’s money that past councils, in allowing roll backs, in their wisdom had kept government from reaching into the people’s wallets to take. Democrat Councilor Verbon Muhammad had particular difficulty in understanding a rate increase in a year without reassessment meant property owners would pay higher taxes for the same pieces of property.
He and the other two Democrats kept arguing higher taxes were necessary to meet increased sanitation costs. But it would make more sense, as the city directly provides the service, to hike user fees instead of taking the money of out the general fund for this purpose. Better, as Republican Councilor Doug Harvey suggested, the city could privatize garbage collection and save about a million dollars a year and not worry about equipment replacement and upgrades.
But the Democrats will want higher taxes because their agenda is increasing city costs needlessly. Besides wasting money on studies about reapportionment, they have done so in other ways such as by increasing disadvantaged business enterprise proportions in some city contracting. Regardless of resolution of the sanitation issue, they need to take more money to pay for this policy-making.
However, Ellis does have the veto power that, if both Republicans back, will defeat any tax increase or attempt to reapportion – and he should. Which is why the Democrats will try any trick, no matter how unusual or far-fetched, over the next nearly three years to get around that.
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