Joey Durel Talks Taxes, Mall And Updates On His Wife’s Condition

With everything that is going on for City Parish President Joey Durel, he still made the effort to join us on the Afternoon Drive Home.  While he joined us, he did cover some key areas that things are happening in, not only in the city, but also in his personal life.

Update on Lynn Durel

As many of us are aware, Joey's wife, Lynn was involved in an accident a couple of weeks ago and has been on the road to recovery since that time.  When we asked Durel how things are going, he mentioned that with broken ribs, it is complicating things for her right now.

If you don't do deep breathing, you don't use the bottom portion of your lungs.  If you don't use them, they start drying up like a sponge would and it's harder to get them reactivated again.  The issue comes down to, really it's pnumonia...She's got to do the breathing exercises and...they've got her on oxygen.  The whole point of it is to prevent something worse than the accident from happening.

Durel said that they were thankful that she was able to survive the accident.

Durel Talks Mall Upgrades

When the mall announced the changes that are coming, Durel mentioned that the name change was "very democratic" because,

They never could get anybody to call it anything else.

Durel said that the investment being made shows that people see a good future for the area.  He said that there is certainly optimism about Acadiana.

Durel mentioned that the traffic is a problem, but it shows that there is something good going on in that area and it means great things for the future.

Durel said that the mall has changed a lot over the years, but has always been considered a beautiful mall and forward thinking.

The Tax Rebate Issue

The most recent story on the mind of the City Parish President has been the vendors comp issue.  Durel said that the tax collection issue is something that the council was going to have to deal with very soon.

Durel reminded people that this is a tax that has already been levied and the money that has been rebated back to businesses is 2 percent of the 2 percent tax that is being collected.

For a $40,000 car, that is $16.

Durel said that he remembered his days in retail,

As a retailer, I took it.  It didn't mean much money to me.  No retailer goes into business because of that.  In fact, I'd say most retailers go into business don't even know that exists...It's a little something in your pocket instead of in the government's pocket, so who wouldn't take it?

Durel mentioned that he has heard from some on the City Parish Council that they would not consider a new tax before we actually collected all of the taxes that have been levied.

Durel said that it adds up to $1.5 million, which means a lot for spending in the parish.  But will it come up soon?  Durel says that he hasn't seen anything for the next meeting on the agenda.

For the complete conversation with City Parish President Joey Durel, click below: