Lafayette To Stop Collecting TIF Sales Tax

The Lafayette City-Parish government will stop collecting an extra penny in sales tax that was imposed in a small area of north Lafayette in 2007 to spur an economic development project that never materialized.Officials say the special tax or TIF ( Tax Incremental Funding ) was to be used to repay the cost of drainage improvements, roads and other infrastructure to attract a large entertainment and shopping center to the area.  Plans for that development were falling apart before the first penny of the new tax was collected.  City-Parish Chief Financial Officer Lorrie Toups says the local law that put the tax in place had a sunset provision that called for it to expire if no bonds were issued for an economic development project by Oct. 1.