Jefferson Parish Council members are talking taxes, but the change they're proposing wouldn't add a new tax, or even renew or increase a current one.  But if approved, Council President John Young says the tax could help dramatically enhance the parish's drainage system.

Since 1998, Jefferson Parish has benefited from a 7/8 cent sales tax which has generated about $43 million annually for street and sewage projects.  According to Young, only about $30 million of the revenue is needed to complete projects already committed to, leaving $13 million dollars leftover -- money the parish now wants to use to fix drainage problems on both the east and west bank.

"We can go out to the financial markets and bond out that stream of income and basically borrow up to fifty million dollars," said Young.  "Fifty million dollars worth of local capital neighborhood drainage projects in Jefferson."

Today, the Parish Council gave the okay to put the issue on the November ballot, giving voters the final say.

"It's not a new tax," explains Young.  "It's not a not even a renewal of an existing tax, it's a tax that's on the books until 2016."

It's a change Jefferson resident Jimmie Harry says is desperately needed.  "When it rains here in this area, this street is a lake."

Neighborhoods built before 1980, like Harry's Jefferson community, have substandard and subsurface drainage, which often translates to a very wet problem.

"It's rough," said Catherine Heim, a Jefferson resident.  She and neighbors say they usually have to plan in advance to avoid getting caught in their flooded neighborhood.  "If the water is really high here, [neighbors] are leaving their cars somewhere else and walking home."

According to Young, the drainage system in Jefferson Parish can only handle an inch worth of water every hour and only about a half an inch of water every hour thereafter. 

"What's happening is the water is not getting out of the neighborhoods fast enough cause the pipes are too small, the subsurface drainage pipes,” said Young.

If allowed to dedicate a portion of the funds from the sales tax to drainage projects, Young says the parish will be able to widen drainage pipes under older neighborhoods in hopes of directing water away from streets faster, and into canals where it could be pumped out.

Parish leaders are now in the process of prioritizing which neighborhoods are in most need and should benefit from the tax change, if approved.

"I just hope they can do it soon before we get another flood," said Harry.

Young says if the tax change is approved this November, he expects construction on new drainage projects to begin as early as January 2009.