SLIDELL – Voters will go to the polls this Saturday, April 29 to consider renewal of two sales taxes in St. Tammany Parish that fund the operations and maintenance of the Justice Center and the parish jail.
Parish officials, with the support of Sheriff Randy Smith, have reduced the sales taxes from a quarter cent each to a fifth-of-a-cent each, and reduced the term for the taxes to remain in place from 20 years to 10 years. The renewals were both defeated last year in the first attempt to confirm the funding to continue.
Both agencies will now receive approximately $9 million a year from the two taxes, down from $11 million.
Additionally, almost $1 million from the Justice Center tax is now dedicated to the specialty courts in the 22nd Judicial District.
Parish President Pat Brister said the decision to change the taxes to only 10 years came after getting feedback from the public following the defeat last year, both taxes going down with 60 percent or more against them.
“I have talked to a lot of people and was consistently told that 20 years was too long on the tax,” Brister said. “With many other millages only 10 years it made sense to drop the sales tax to 10 years.”
Brister said that if the tax fails it would positively mean the Towers Building in Slidell would close. That facility provides an eastern parish service area for most departments in parish government. If the Towers Building closes it will flood hundreds more to the Justice Center operation.
“That’s not a threat,” Brister said. “We simply wouldn’t have the dollars to operate it.”
The sales tax for the jail operation is equally important considering the parish currently houses 1,100 prisoners, Smith said. He said a failure of the tax would mean that 100 employees would lose their jobs. The jail currently has over 200 employees running it.
“It’s so important to maintain the operation and the safety of the jail as our population grows,” Smith said. “Even though the cost is rising to feed inmates and provide medical care for them, we are not asking for any increase—for that matter we are willing to figure out how to do it with less money from the tax.”
Judge Peter Garcia heads the specialty court program in the 22nd Judicial District system, providing a way to help people with problems that keep landing them in jail.
“We appreciate the parish helping us fund these courts since none of the judges are paid extra money for the time it takes to handle the different courts, but it is still expensive to run them,” Garcia said. “These courts are proven to be effective by getting counseling, treatment or whatever it takes so someone can overcome the problem that keeps landing them in jail.”
Brister said the parish needs the sales tax funding since it comes down to quality of life issues in St. Tammany to maintain these services, and keep the jail operating at a peak level.
“We know the state issues with money are getting worse and we need ways to keep these programs that are important to our quality of life in St. Tammany Parish,” she said. “The residents of St. Tammany need to do what we can to take care of ourselves rather than rely on the state to help, and these taxes are part of keeping the quality of life we have here.”
The specialty courts are proven to reduce jail population, according to a Louisiana Public Health Institute report. Recidivism rates after two years for those who were involved in a drug court were only 5.4 percent, compared to a 36 percent recidivism rate for those who were offenders on felony probation with treatment in a specialty court.