Millage money reduced by a surprising amount
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – It has been over eight years since St. Tammany Parish took control of the taxpayer funded Coroner’s Office assets that have provided millions of dollars to that department since a millage was approved in 2004.
The money began flowing in 2007 after the former coroner was able to get taxpayer approval for the property tax millage, all with the intent of building a state-of-the-art Coroner’s Office on Hwy. 434 in Lacombe.
That’s exactly what former Coroner Dr. Peter Galvan was able to do on the 40 acres of land he purchased, but when he ran into legal and financial problems handling Coroner’s Office revenue, a St. Tammany lawmaker had a law passed that took control of the assets and allowed the parish to take over.
The millage was a hefty one and collected over $3.8 million in the first year of ’07, a number that has steadily grown due to the St. Tammany population increasing year-after-year.
The millage began bringing in over $5 million a year by 2011, went over $6 million in 2016, and in 2021 brought in $7.8 million.
But surprisingly to current Coroner Dr. Charles Preston when he began the steps to regain control of his department assets was seeing how much of the millage money was reduced for different reasons, which was followed by another reduction in the revenue by the parish for what they called “administrative fees.”
The Sheriff’s Office is the official parish tax collector, so all millage monies come through that department first. Certain “reductions” are made before the rest of it is forwarded to the parish. From there, after administrative fees and other charges are factored in, a final check is sent to the Coroner’s Office.
Since getting a report from the Sheriff’s Office for the millage revenue, which started in 2007, Preston said he was surprised to see a rather large “reduction” pulled out of the total each year before the remaining money was sent to the parish.
Sheriff’s Office records show that the Coroner’s Office, and the taxpayers who funded it, were losing over $200,000 annually, a total that steadily climbed to $307,479 this year.
The Sheriff’s Office reported that the large amount of “reductions” is mostly due to state mandated payments to the retirement plan, so even though taxpayers probably thought the added property tax money they have been paying for nearly 20 years was completely for the Coroner’s Office operation, it turns out that part of that money was to pay the retirement portion for employees at the office.
Once the parish received the remaining money, administrative charges by the parish have generally run in the $15,000 to $49,000 a year range, although there were five years when the parish kept between $103,119 to as much as $217,313.
Chief Administrative Officer Gina Hayes sent a report out that indicted the higher amounts were when parish government handled land acquisitions, legal services, or major projects for the Coroner’s Office.
Hayes said the parish did have the right to collect monies off the millage since she said they are responsible for levying the millage, receiving and disbursing the tax proceeds, and also to service the debt. She added that the taxes must also be accounted for in the parish budget and audited financial statements.
She said that other millages, such as the library, STARC, COAST and others, also must pay administrative fees.
“The discrepancy in the two lists is very hard to understand and I’d like to know where all the money went to,” Preston said.
Preston said he is currently trying to verify if that much money was legitimately taken out of the millage revenue, although both the Sheriff’s Office and Hayes have provided detailed explanations of the reason for it.