Current News Items
EDD developer tied to Medicaid fraud
Over the last several weeks, we've been digging into these new taxing districts. They were passed by the previous council and signed into law by the previous city/parish Mayor-President on Friday, January 3rd, 2020. Effectively, all this occurred at a special...
Who Has Legislative Power?
After close inspection of the ordinances (page 5) that established several new taxing districts, there appears to be a process error in their creation. The question of legislative authority has arisen regarding who in Lafayette Consolidated Government has the power to...
WOW! Buchanan garage was never officially declared unsafe!?
When we entered 2020, Citizens for a New Louisiana decided to go back and review some of the challenges and tax proposal solutions from previous years. The goal was to identify the issue the tax was supposed to address and then identify solutions to those same issues,...
Announcing the Celebrating Transparency in Government Banquet
Until Citizens for a New Louisiana came along, Louisiana was missing a serious, conservative non-profit organization dedicated to public policy in local government that's not tied to a special interest group. Over the last few years, we've grown to inform local...
Growing pains – We need your help!
Louisiana has never had a serious non-profit focused on local public policy issues - until now. Even with such a short time in existence, Citizens for a New Louisiana has already been dubbed, "the most influential voice in Lafayette." That compliment hasn't come from...
CAUGHT! Lafayette council violated public notice laws
Update: The City-Parish council has now successfully called two special (emergency) meetings to finalize these taxes just days before their term expires. One is set for January 2nd, and the second for January 3rd. The inauguration of the new councils...
Merry Christmas – New taxes move to final approval on Friday!
Update: it appears that Bruce Conque has canceled his request for an emergency meeting to ram through these new taxes. Just like we saw with the two-week vote on "fix the charter," the delay is due to Bruce's favorable votes crew not being available to attend the...
Lafayette: Just six tax increases away from prosperity
Six times they tried to raise taxes. Six times voters said, "no." Do you remember the School Tax? Back in 2017, the Lafayette Parish School Board decided it needed $238 million in tax revenue to build a bunch of schools. The voters said, "no." How about the Library...
The high-resolution TIF district maps
The maps included in the ordinances are pretty fuzzy. Here are the high-resolution versions. Click the image to download the PDF version. Downtown Lafayette Economic Development District Northway Economic Development District Holy Rosary Institute Economic Development...
Kenneth Boudreaux’s $2.3 million conflict of interest
Term-limited Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux didn't run for re-election this last time around. His twelve-years of "service" will end with an exclamation point: a brand new library that nobody wants or needs. He's been friendly to raising taxes in...
