Tax request by the D.A. needs support

There were various reactions late last year after the failure of a sales tax proposal in St. Tammany Parish that would have provided critical funding to the operation of the parish jail and the Justice Center.
The tax was promoted by Parish President Mike Cooper as yet another attempt to recoup $22 million of parish revenue that was lost two years ago when the sales tax renewal was initially turned down by voters.
While the outspoken anti-tax St. Tammany crowd was quick to say “told ‘ya so” for trying to get more public dollars in a parish that already has a high tax level, the response to the failure was even more startling when District Attorney Warren Montgomery almost immediately announced he would go out for a revamped, and smaller, tax request sometime early in 2022. That vote is now on the horizon for April 30.
The previous sales tax was on the books for 10 years before voters denied the attempt for a renewal. It provided approximately $11 million a year for the sheriff’s jail operation, and the Justice Center where all court prosecutions are handled for the 22nd Judicial District.
Without that money, which the parish is mandated by the state to pay for, the lost funding has been made up for by the parish using fund balances, essentially the savings that has been put aside for years. Cooper stated last year in advance of the November, 2021 vote that the parish would be “out of money” by early in 2022 if the sales tax was not approved.
Voters didn’t seem to be too worried about that as 66 percent said “no” to the proposal from the parish president, leaving Sheriff Randy Smith and D.A. Warren Montgomery facing a budget crisis of their own if the parish was unable to keep funding them at a reasonable level. And in fact, that $11 million for each has been dramatically reduced from the parish.
While Smith has managed to adjust with far less than the $11 million coming his way from the parish, Montgomery stated at a recent luncheon that the “safe St. Tammany” landscape will be severely affected if he can’t find more money somewhere. The D.A. is now asking voters for even less in sales tax revenue—one-seventh of a cent—which would only cost residents 1 penny for every $7 they spend in the parish.
For that amount of tax money, Montgomery would bring in approximately $8 million a year that he is specifically dedicating to “prosecution of criminals and nothing else.” Montgomery told the Chamber of Commerce business leaders at the luncheon that without the money, he will lose more highly-skilled prosecutors, and court cases will be dragged out for so long that some of those criminals will be released on bail.
You have to admire Montgomery for doing something that is quite bold—again asking voters to approve a sales tax that nobody really loves. But the D.A. also believes in his heart that it is the right thing to do to preserve the high level of law enforcement we all want in St. Tammany.
For that, we support his effort for the tax on April 30.