New Iberia Fire Chief reacts to sales tax passing; sales tax increases pay for firefighters
NEW IBERIA, La. (KLFY)- A 1/4 cent sales tax has officially passed, ensuring over 50 firefighters with the department will receive higher salaries moving forward. The tax passed with 53 percent of voters saying yes, and 47 percent of voters saying no.
This comes after the sales tax was proposed by the New Iberia Department due to firefighters' hourly salary only being $10.72. Now, with the sales tax passing, the department will receive $2 million a year to add to the department's salaries.
New Iberia Fire Chief, Gordan Copell, tells News 10 the low pay caused a lot of positions to open.
"The New Iberia Fire Department salaries are low relative to other departments, so we're continuously training and losing firefighters to other departments and we trying to keep them at home," said Copell.
With the new pay taking effect, Copell says the department is now looking to hire more firefighters.
"We currently probably six positions down so we're looking to hire, all they have to is we instruct them on how to get a civil test score and once we have that we interview them and if they are a good fit for the department we go ahead and hire them and put them through 14 weeks of training," said Copell.
Copell says he thanks the New Iberia community for voting yes to ensuring firefighters are paid what they are worth.
"The community is normally very supportive of our fire department and we expected nothing different on this occasion," said Copell. "We hoped everybody went out and voted to let their voices be heard."'
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