Calcasieu Parish Tax Proposal Preview

By Brett Downer
The Times Contributing Writer



You’ll have four decisions to make on Saturday, Nov. 14, on law enforcement and justice operations in Calcasieu Parish. Top officials are making their pitch to civic groups, the news media and online to advocate their proposals, but taxpayers will have the final say when they go to the polls.

THE BOTTOM LINE
There are four items on the ballot:
-- Continuation of a property tax that supports the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office — with a rollback if it passes.
-- A new tax to increase pay at the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office.
-- A bond issue to fund capital improvements for law enforcement and justice facilities.
-- A new, higher millage for courthouse and jail maintenance.
If you’re a registered voter and live in Calcasieu Parish, you’re able to vote.

As the election approaches, Sheriff Tony Mancuso is among those who are out front and are talking up the proposals — whether he is making a speech in a restaurant meeting room, speaking at a League of Women Voters forum or fielding questions from the news media.
He hopes that Calcasieu voters won’t transfer whatever frustrations they might have about tax-and-spend issues in Washington when they step into the voting machine. (Mancuso has mentioned his own post-Rita frustrations in that regard.)

“I know people are up in arms with the federal government,” Mancuso told the Times. “But on a local level, the officials are right there — and the people can see what their money is being spent on.”

CAPITAL PROJECTS
By law, it’s up to the Police Jury to see that parish agencies are properly housed. A proposal on the Nov. 14 ballot would provide more or better space or facilities for the Sheriff’s Office, 14th Judicial District Court, the DA’s Office, the Clerk of Court’s Office and Coroner’s Office. The parish points out that there haven’t been capital-improvement projects for these offices in two decades.

On the ballot are two items tied to this new effort.

One proposition is a 20-year, $55 million bond issue for capital Improvements, paid for with a property tax likely below 1.5 mills (and offset with gambling revenue).

The other proposition is a 10-year renewal of the 3.27-mill maintenance tax for the courthouse and jail — plus a 2.48-mill increase. Additionally, passage of the bond issue would trigger a 0.5-mill increase in this maintenance renewal -- in order to cover the additional maintenance needs.

If the bond issue is approved, here’s what would be built, expanded or improved:
- A new pod of single cells to separate certain people at the ever-crowded Sheriff’s Prison and the Calcasieu Correctional Center. “A single-bed bed pod will enable us to free up about 250 beds in our facility,” Mancuso told the Times. “By law, we have to classify prisoners. We have inmates who are very violent, who are mentally ill, who have contagious diseases.

We’re wasting (multi-bed) cells by having only one person in them.” He offered another example of what people are separated from others: “If we arrest some 18-year-old on, say, a drug charge at Walmart, and you put them in with a violent criminal — if something were to happen, we’d be liable civilly.” With the pod could come an expansion of the intake area with a secure walkway. Pricetag: $14.4 million.

- A new, 48,000-square-foot Family and Juvenile Court south of the Charleston in downtown Lake Charles. Pricetag: $11.5 million.
- A four-level, 469-slot parking garage at the corner of Kirby and Pithon streets with secured areas for judges and inmates. “The garage will also provide parking capacity for downtown events on evenings and weekends,” the parish touts on its Web site. Pricetag: $11.5 million.
- A new, consolidated forensic facility and crime lab. Pricetag: $8.5 million.
- Conversion of two second-floor courtrooms into one large one at the parish courthouse — and adding holding-cell capacity. Pricetag: $2.5 million.
-Relocation of the DA’s Office to the former US Unwired headquarters on Lakeshore Drive. Pricetag: $1 million.
-New use of freed-up space by the vacating Family & Juvenile Court as a storage and preservation area for the Clerk of Court’s Office. The clerk currently pays for private, off-site storage. Pricetag: $1 million.
- Other costs, such as furniture and fees, for about $4.5 million.

The bond issue for these projects would cost homeowners the following annual amount: $3.75 if their home is assessed at $100,000; $11.25 if $150,000; $18.75 if $200,000; and $26.25 if $250,000. For the homes assessed below $75,000, there’s no tax.
Here’s the formula for the maintenance proposition: $7.45 if $100,000; $22.35 if $150,000; $37.25 if $200,000; and $52.15 if $250,000.

If the bond-issue proposition passes but the maintenance proposition fails, the Police Jury will not sell bonds or put the tax into effect.

AT THE DA’S OFFICE
District Attorney John DeRosier seeks a parishwide 10-year, 0.75-mill tax. He wants to implement a performance-based plan to make pay increases possible for his employees — DeRosier himself wouldn’t get a raise out of it — and to retain talented staff.
For example, the starting salary for a secretary, now about $16,000 annually, would increase to $18,000.

DeRosier would tie an employee’s satisfactory annual evaluation to a 3 percent cost-of-living increase.

The tax would go into effect Jan. 1 if approved. It would raise an estimated $988,000 annually. For the owner of a home assessed at $150,000, the annual tax would be $5.36.

SHERIFF’S TAX
Mancuso seeks renewal of a 10-year, 7.58-mill property tax in the parish — with an automatic rollback to 4.39 mills. The tax expires in 2010; the renewal would go into effect in 2011.

The renewal-with-a-rollback is a maneuver to avoid placing the item on the ballot as a “new” tax. Mancuso is careful to point out that a reduction goes hand-in-hand with passage. In short, the Sheriff’s Office still needs part of the current millage, but not all of it, so the idea of a renewal with a rollback was considered better than a new tax proposition.

The figure of 7.58 mills is original figure when the millage was approved two decades ago.
For the owner of a home assessed at $150,000, the current tax is $58.57. If the renewal passes, the millage rollback will reduce that by $26.65 — and Mancuso plans to roll back another millage, for an additional $25.58 in savings for a property owner.

Mancuso is circulating campaign material that calculates that the passage of all four ballots, coupled with his rollbacks, will mean “you will actually see a decrease of $12.17 in your property taxes” if you own a $150,000 home.

TO LEARN MORE
For a sample ballot, connect to www.calclerkofcourt.com and, in the right column, click “Sample Ballots.” To read the full wording of the propositions as they appear on the ballot, click the “Propositions” links.

Also the Calcasieu Parish government Web site, www.cppj.net, has information, charts and video about the proposals.

For voter information, call the Registrar of Voters’ Office, 721-4000.

The polls will be open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day. Have a photo ID with you when you show up.