DENHAM SPRINGS, Louisiana (WAFB) – Lt. Keith Scoby and the Denham Springs Police Department are coming up with ideas to retain and recruit more first responders.
“We’re trying to get on par with surrounding agencies that are offering more competitive pay scales, and that’s just what we’re trying to do,” Scoby explained. “We have to think beyond the options of a sales tax and a property tax, and that’s the solution we’ve found.”
The solution is a 6.75% tax on the city’s hotels. Scoby said if half of the city’s hotel rooms were occupied, it could raise more than $500,000, which could be used to pay the salaries and benefits of 60 police officers and firefighters. But Carom Inn manager Bhagirath Joshi thinks that’s unlikely.
“There are only eight hotels and the occupancy is very low,” Joshi said. “We don’t have thousands of rooms here. At this exit, we have about 300 hotel rooms at most.”
Scoby said these hotel rooms attract a lot of attention. He said they were called to the hotels over 800 times in a year for suspicious vehicles, disturbances and overdoses. That’s about twice a day, which is why he said these visitors should be charged.
“The citizens of Denham Springs are not going to pay for this,” Scoby said. “It’s the travelers, and they’re paying for a service that, as we’ve shown with the increased call volumes in this area, they’re actually getting.”
However, Joshi believes that they should not be punished for causing trouble.
“We call them so they can catch them. If we help them and they have to come here and respond, we should not be punished for these things,” Joshi said.
If the tax is passed, prices would increase by about $12, according to Joshi. Scoby believes that this cost is neither crucial to the success nor the ruin of places like the Carom Inn.
“We haven’t put the hotels and motels out of business,” Scoby explained. “We’ve made sure that their room rates remain comparable to those of hotels across the river, in Baton Rouge and here.”
However, Joshi said they will feel the effects before it can make a difference for Scoby.
“We’re going to suffer,” Joshi said. “We’re not going to have as many customers staying here at our exit, so the whole idea of getting more money is gone. Let the city council find another way.”
“I know when you see ‘taxes,’ it can be a dirty word sometimes, but when you see something like that, just don’t say ‘no,'” Scoby said.
The hotel tax will be on the ballot. Early voting begins October 18 and Election Day is November 5.
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