With a population of around 26,700 and year-over-year declines, New Iberia faces real fiscal headwinds. Yet City Hall’s proposal to raise the mayor’s base salary from $80,000 to $120,000 treats our city like a booming metropolis rather than a municipality managing tight budgets and shifting demographics.
Proponents will point to neighboring communities to justify the increase, but size is not the only metric that matters. Cities like Broussard and Youngsville sit squarely in the Lafayette growth corridor, backed by expanding commercial development and robust sales tax revenues. New Iberia isn’t in that position. We are dealing with an aging population, lower median incomes, older infrastructure, high public safety demands and an ongoing loss of residents and local businesses.
Our local tax base is already stretched thin across heavy obligations. Asking taxpayers to fund a $40,000 raise comes at a time when families are struggling with inflation and civic trust is already strained, fresh off controversy surrounding the Lagniappe Village sales tax agreement and persistent concerns over crime…