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New Iberia firefighters ask council to put local sales-tax proposal on March 2025 ballot to raise firefighter pay
Summary
Representatives of the New Iberia Fire Department told the council the department has lost personnel and starting pay has not increased since 2003; they asked the council to place a sales‑use tax measure on the ballot in March 2025 to raise base pay and stabilize staffing.
Captain Zachary Ball, president of the New Iberia Firefighters Association, asked the City Council to place a sales-and-use-tax proposal on the March 2025 ballot to increase firefighter base pay and shore up department hiring and retention.
Ball told the council the department’s starting pay has not increased since 2003 and the city has lost more than a dozen members in the last 18 months, many to neighboring departments offering higher salaries. He said staffing shortfalls have forced minimum staffing and temporary station closures on some days, and argued a local revenue measure is necessary to provide a living wage and stabilize public-safety staffing.
The mayor and several council members voiced public support for placing a measure before voters. The administration announced a public meeting notice that the council plans to consider adopting a resolution ordering and calling an election on a sales-and-use tax; the meeting to consider the resolution is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2024. City officials said if council approves the resolution, the measure would be placed on the March 2025 ballot.
Why this matters: Fire department staffing and pay affect response capacity, mutual-aid arrangements and could influence the city’s insurance rating. Council members noted the need to let voters decide and discussed outreach and messaging for a ballot measure.
Next steps: The council will consider a resolution at its Nov. 6 meeting to place a sales-and-use tax question on a March 2025 ballot; firefighters and supporters are expected to organize outreach if the council moves forward.
