‘Quality of life’ is issue, says Cooper
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Parish President Mike Cooper calls this Saturday’s vote to raise the sales tax a “quality of life decision for residents of St. Tammany Parish.”
Voters go to the polls this Saturday and face four state Constitutional Propositions and four millage renewals for the public school system, but also of great importance is a request by the parish to increase the sales tax in St. Tammany by four-tenths of a cent.
The money is essentially to replace much of the missing revenue the parish lost when a pair of quarter-cent sales taxes were defeated for the third time in a 2018 vote. It left the parish needing to fill a $22 million revenue hole each year that has been impacting the budget ever since, and it is money the parish must have since it is for state mandated expenses to fund the parish jail and the entire Justice Center operation.
Cooper contends this Saturday’s vote to raise the sales tax by four-tenths of a cent “is not a renewal, but a different tax we are asking for.”
And the parish president insists it is vitally important to “maintain the quality of life we know and love in St. Tammany, mainly the low crime rate and strong law enforcement system we have.”
The tax is specifically dedicated to funding 10 different aspects that relate to the justice system in the parish, including the parish jail, the District Attorney’s Office, the Justice Center operation and maintenance, the 22nd District Court judges, plus six other areas that connect to the law enforcement operation. As state mandated expenses, the parish must pay for them one way or another, so if they don’t get the sales tax passed, they must still fund the justice system in some way. That likely means other areas of services will have to suffer.
In an interview on the importance of funding these important parish services, Cooper urged the public to consider what passage of the sales tax is really about.
“There are a lot of things we love about living in St. Tammany Parish, but at the top of the list has to be the great justice system we have. We’ve got the lowest crime rate of any parish around us, and we must continue to fund the operation, or the money will come from some other area of the budget. And that means some services will not remain the same,” he said.
“That’s why I have told the public this is an investment in our public safety. It’s about maintaining the quality of life we love here,” he added.
Cooper noted that parish voters had been paying a half-cent for the criminal justice system for the 20 years before the renewals were defeated, “so we’re actually lowering the tax you had been paying, and it’s to continue funding our justice system at the level we want to maintain.”
When Cooper took office, he knew that finding a way to replace the $22 million was a top priority. For the past three years the parish has been paying for the justice system costs by utilizing fund balances—essentially the parish’s savings accounts.
Cooper pointed out that the parish had $24 million in those fund balances in 2018 when the tax renewals were defeated, but in March of 2022 “that money will be completely depleted.”
The parish president took on the challenge of raising the $22 million by naming a revenue committee that looked into every way possible they could find the money. In the end the decision was made that the sales tax was the fairest way to do it.
“We considered a property tax, but that means the only people paying for our justice system would be the ones who own land or property. By having a sales tax, it means everyone who buys anything in St. Tammany Parish will help pay for this, not just some people,” he explained. “And a lot of people don’t realize that 40 cents of every dollar in sales tax comes from visitors to our parish.”
Additionally, he said the idea to add a property tax millage was rejected since “parish voters already have high property taxes, with 45 percent of that money going to education, so we didn’t want to add to that.”
The parish is also hoping the public will support the tax since they have reduced the length of the tax to seven years, meaning the public will be able to reconsider it sooner than the previous 10-year tax.
“We’ve changed a lot about the way the tax is being proposed now,” Cooper said. “That’s why I see this as something new. I believe we are proposing it in a way the public should be able to support, and I certainly believe we have worked hard to earn the trust and confidence of our citizens on this.”
Cooper’s final point was that the parish is asking the public to fund the justice center at a lower rate than they paid for 20 years previously, and it’s coming as St. Tammany’s population has grown from 191,270 people in 2000 to the 263,446 citizens living here now.
The tax is being supported by the St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce, the Bureau of Government Research, the Republican Party Executive Committee, the Northshore Business Council, and St. Tammany Corporation.
The Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany, which has the largest Social Media impact of any organization in the parish with 16,000 followers and approximately 200,000 Facebook views a month, stated in a press release that they are against the tax.