OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) — When it comes to the $0.01 sales tax in Opelousas one of the biggest conversations has been the impact it will make on first responders. Opelousas fire chief Bryan Chavis, has said that sales tax is going to be crucial if the fire department has any chance of moving forward.

“If the city loses that, then personnel won’t be able to get hired,” said Chavis. “We won’t be able to continue our PIAL rating. We will have to close a fire station in order to get the personnel here at Central Station. Substations will get closed down. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

Chavis says the one cent sales tax provides critical funding the department needs to maintain operations. This includes running each of the substations in the city, which is only getting harder as the department is operating with short staffing as salaries are lower than other cities.

“Our overtime is going through the roof right now because of our short staffing. Our short staffing is with the $0.01 sales tax that was in place. If we lose the $0.01 sales tax, it’s not going to help our short staffing. It’s going to make it worse,” said Chavis.

To make things more difficult, Chavis says next year the department will have to purchase new equipment for firefighters as the 10 year shelf life of the current equipment expires. A $200,000 expense. This on top of the fact that the department will soon need a new rescue truck at central station.

“The only thing we’re doing at that point is putting our guys in further danger with gear that does not meet the standard that it should be,” said Chavis.

Chavis says the department has goals to add new firefighters to the payroll and to expand with a new substation in the city, but taking away the sales tax in the city not only takes away the ability to plan for the future but makes it impossible to maintain in the present.

“If things are bad now with the one state sales tax, they’re not going to get better with less money” said Chavis. “When the people Saturday get ready to go into the voting booth, put all the personal leave it outside of the voting booth. All of the personal stuff that’s going on. Leave it out of sight of the voting booth. Look at your neighborhood. Look at the street that you drove on to get there and say it’s and think to yourself, How will it get better? It cannot get better with less money.”

Election day on the sales tax renewal is August 16.

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