News

BATON ROUGE — It looks as if Louisiana’s sugarcane grinding season is going to be an extended one. But there is a good reason for the late finish—an exceptional sugarcane crop.
Most years, the majority of mills complete grinding by the end of December. While some may be finished by then this year, others are scheduled to continue grinding until as late as Jan. 20.
“That’s very late,” said Kenneth Gravois, LSU AgCenter sugarcane specialist. “That makes a lot of people nervous going that late, but we’ve had a good crop. We’re sitting on a record crop here in Louisiana.”

The City of Abbeville is on schedule to end the 2017 calender year in decent shape, when it comes to sales tax collection.
The city’s budget is down three percent as the year comes to a close.
Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza said, with all things considered, he is happy with only being down three percent.
“That is not bad in my opinion,” Piazza said.
The city collects around $3.8 million a year from sales tax collection. If the city is down three percent, that equals to about $114,000 for the year.

Five months into the fiscal year, the Vermilion Parish School District sales tax collection is holding steady, according to school district’s CFO Phil Sellers.
The school district is showing a 1.6 percent decline in sales tax revenue compared to this time last year.
After you do the math, that’s a total of $80,000 less than a year ago
“I will take that,” said Sellers.
The school district normally collects $7.5 to $8 million a year in sales tax. If the trend continues, the school board will be down only $200,000 at the end of the fiscal year.