Election Tab Pared Down

The Evangeline Parish School District paid only $1,461 to hold a failed bond election in October 2007, not the $31,000 that superintendent Toni Hamilton originally said the election cost.

Hamilton told the school board last week that she had incorrectly reported the amount that the district paid the state for an earlier parish-wide school tax renewal election. The district paid less for the fall election because it split the costs with other local governments and the state, Hamilton said. 

Voters in Ward 1 rejected a property tax increase to support $28 million of general obligation bonds in the fall election. The vote was the fifth failure since 1983 to raise taxes to repair Ville Platte High School.

After the election, the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal district judge to close the predominantly black school and order the school board to build a new one.

The district will again try to pass the tax increase at an election on July 19. A hearing on the case is set for federal court a week after the July election.

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