Iberville Parish sales tax remain steady, natural gas is ‘red flag’

Iberville local government will remain stable for the final quarter of 2021, but another area is of great concern for the future, said Mayor J. Mitchell Ourso.

The sales tax collection remained stable from January to September this year compared to the previous year.

Concerns about widespread closures at the start of the pandemic in March 2019 prompted community governments across Louisiana, including Iberville, to brace for a sharp drop in 5 percent community sales tax revenues.

As with most Louisiana communities, fears have never materialized.

Iberville Parish closed its books in 2019 with $ 55 million in sales tax revenue, while the grand total reached $ 54,909 from January to September.

For the same period in 2021, community sales tax added a total of $ 53,899 in revenue to community coffers.

“It’s all relative, almost the same,” said Ourso. “I am more than happy. I thought we might have lost $ 4 million or $ 5 million … luckily that didn’t happen. “

A sharp rise in natural gas and electricity prices has doubled the cost in the United States.

Analysts expect the share price to rise by 30 percent by the end of the year.

The global energy crisis, along with an increase and demand when supply has decreased, has largely contributed to the increase.

“It’s definitely a red flag,” he said. “Natural gas prices over the past six or seven years have been manageable, but this trend concerns me.”

Natural gas futures are trading about 120 percent higher on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with prices hovering at $ 5.59 last week, according to Marketwatch. This follows an increase to $ 6.312 per million UK thermal units on October 5, the highest billing since December 2008.

Prices fell back to $ 5.345 on October 11, their lowest level in just over two weeks. They are still well on their way to posting the highest annual profit since 2000, when prices more than tripled. Likewise the United States Natural Gas Fund

A mild winter might take some relief from home consumers, but it could have a much bigger impact on the community’s industrial sector, particularly the petrochemical industry.

The local sector has not yet indicated any cuts, but the increase raises concerns about a repeat of the dilemma in Iberville and other industrial communities in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The increase led to the closure of the Ashland Chemical plant south of Plaquemine in 1998. It also hit neighboring West Baton Rouge Parish when DSM Copolymer closed its Addis facility in 2001.