La. R.S. 47:338.165 — Ward Five and Ward Eight Sales Tax District of St. Mary Parish; authorization

A. The police jury of St. Mary Parish is hereby authorized to create within said parish a sales tax district to be designated as the Ward Five and Ward Eight Sales Tax District of St. Mary Parish. The district shall be composed of Ward Five and Ward Eight of St. Mary Parish. However, no municipality, or any portion thereof, situated within Ward Five or Ward Eight shall be included within the sales tax district unless the governing authority of the municipality to be included concurs, by resolution duly adopted, in its inclusion.
B. The sales tax district shall be created by ordinance of the police jury of St. Mary Parish. The governing authority thereof shall be a three-member board, and its domicile shall be the regular meeting place of the town of Berwick. The board shall be composed of one member selected and appointed by the governing authority of the municipality of Patterson, one member selected and appointed by the governing authority of the municipality of Berwick, and one member selected and appointed by the police jury of St. Mary Parish. The members shall serve until replaced by their respective bodies and shall serve without pay. The board members shall be the officers of the sales tax district.
C. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and in addition to any other sales and use tax now or hereafter levied and collected, the aforementioned three-member board, as the governing authority of said district, is hereby authorized under the provisions of Article VI, Section 29(B) of the 1974 Constitution of Louisiana to levy and collect an additional sales and use tax not exceeding three-tenths of one percent within the district, subject to approval at an election as hereafter provided. The tax shall be imposed by ordinance or resolution of the aforementioned three-member board and shall be levied upon the sale at retail, the use, the lease or rental, the consumption, the distribution and storage for use or consumption, of tangible personal property, and upon the sales of services within the district, all as presently or hereafter defined in R.S. 47:301 through 317. Except where inapplicable, the procedure established by R.S. 47:301 through 317, inclusive, shall be followed in the imposition, collection, and enforcement of the tax and procedural details necessary to be established to supplement the provisions of those Sections and to make said provisions applicable to the tax herein authorized shall be fixed in the ordinance or resolution of the board imposing the tax. The ordinance or resolution may provide for a contract with the sheriff of the parish, the St. Mary Parish sales tax department, or municipalities within the parish for collection of the tax. The tax shall be imposed and collected uniformly throughout the area of the district as created. The proceeds of the tax shall be dedicated solely for the purposes approved by the electorate, including the funding of the proceeds of such tax into bonds in the manner provided by Subpart F, Part III, Chapter 4, Title 39 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, as amended, which funding may be submitted to the voters in the same proposition in which the tax is submitted. The resolution imposing any tax hereunder, or amendments hereto, shall specify that the avails or proceeds of the tax after payment of collection costs shall be divided by the governing authority of the taxing district between the parish and the two incorporated cities within the district in accordance with a formula or method of allocation set forth in the question or proposition which must be submitted to the qualified electors of the parish approving the levy of the tax in compliance with the requirements of Subsection D hereof. Also, the purpose or purposes for which each allocation shall be appropriated and expended shall be stated in the question or proposition submitted to the qualified electors. The question or proposition approved at said election shall constitute a full and complete dedication of the avails or proceeds of said tax, and its provisions shall control the allocation and expenditure thereof.
D. The ordinance or resolution imposing the tax herein authorized shall be adopted by the three-member board only after the question of the imposition of the tax shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of the district at an election called, conducted, canvassed, and promulgated in accordance with the general laws of the state of Louisiana and the majority of those voting in the election shall have voted in favor of the adoption of the ordinance or resolution. Voting machines shall be used in the election and all expenses of the election shall be borne by the municipalities included in the district and the St. Mary Parish Police Jury on a pro rata basis.