State sales tax increase taking effect New Year’s Day [Video]

ST. GABRIEL — Starting Jan. 1, the state will see an increase in sales tax and some communities will see a higher tax than others.

The University Club Center Economic Development District in St. Gabriel will have a sales tax load of nearly 13% when local and state sales taxes are added together. 

Aiden Hebert, a manager at Anytime Fitness in the district, said this can affect the community. He said the gym has more than 1,000 members and he is concerned that the increase could affect the volume of customers.

“Obviously there’s things outside of our control that we can’t control. I can foresee it being a factor, but we can only do our due diligence by providing value to the community,” said Hebert.

He said he doesn’t want the increase to play a role in members achieving a healthy lifestyle.

“We want to be able to say, ‘Okay, …