LIVINGSTON - For Livingston Parish residents, there are two proposals on the ballot that parish officials said are needed to fund vital programs in the parish.

The first proposition voters will see involves the parish's health unit, animal shelter and animal control. The proposition renews an existing tax but lowers the maximum millage to 2.

A similar proposition that kept the millage maximum at 2.5 failed to pass last year.

"The constituents weren't informed, didn't know, they vote no against taxes," Livingston Parish Council Member Ricky Goff said. "We're putting it back on the ballot, educating everyone, but we're also lowering it as well."

Goff said as of right now, the current maximum the rate can be set at is 2.5 mills, but that is set to end this year.

The money raised from the tax goes to the health unit. If the first proposition fails to pass this year, Goff said the health unit would have to run using surplus funds. He said there is enough money in surplus funds to run the health unit for three to four years.

Goff said the council currently has the millage rate at 1.5 for the parish.

The first proposition renews the tax but lowers the maximum millage rate the council can set to 2. It also gives the parish council the ability to use the funds raised by the taxes to support both the health unit and the animal shelter and animal control programs.

"The new proposition on the ballot to renew that would actually lower it... the maximum. So right now, the maximum we can collect is 2.5. When it hopefully is approved by the constituents, it can only go up to 2," Goff said.

Several voters at the polls said they were not sure what the proposition did.

"I had to try and decipher the verbiage in it, but I think I understood...but the only time you hear about it is when you see it on the ballot," Corey Guenther, a local voter, said.

"It's sad like I said, you would think they would want to educate us a lot better," Frank Barber, a voter, said.

Goff said the health unit performs inspections in restaurants, nursing homes, and daycares and also checks sewage and water systems in the parish. Again, the proposition adds the ability for the council to use the tax money for animal control.

"There are 64 parishes, we're the ninth largest and we do not have animal control," Goff said. "Because we have a surplus of 8.7 million now in the bank, we would use a certain portion, $2.5 (to) $2.7 million to build animal control. We have the money, people have been putting it in for years. We just need to have access to it to legally spend it."

The second proposition involves the parish's existing 1% sales tax.

Three-quarters of the revenue generated goes to the roads and bridges, and a quarter goes to the jail. The parish says that when the jail is fully funded, the excess should go toward roads and animal control.

"It's not a renewal, it's just allowing us to use the monies collected on streets, drainage and animal control," Goff said.

If money is going to the roads, one voter said he wants to know which ones.

"It's fine to give them the money from the taxes, but let's see where it's going, show us what it's doing," Pietre Crichfield, a voter, said.