Sims leads meeting of all tax agencies
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The new year is starting to show great hope for the St. Tammany Parish government “major fiscal crisis,” as it was called months ago by the head of the St. Tammany Chamber.
That is thanks to the efforts of two key parish officials who took the lead early in the year to tackle the massive problem, something that is now moving forward with promise for the new year.
District Attorney Collin Sims, who started an effort early in the year with Parish Councilman Joe Impastato to reduce the tax burden on St. Tammany residents, is seeing a plan taking shape that is now involving every one of the over 50 parish taxing agencies, who gathered together at a meeting last week.
The meeting was held to seek support from the dozens of agencies to do a deep dive into their operations and find a way to dramatically cut millages and taxes for parish residents.
Sims said the meeting has started “positive momentum to get this done. It was a great meeting and we had such support from everyone. I think they all realize we have a serious tax structure problem in this parish and we can’t fix it without everyone getting on board.
“I thought it was a great meeting,” he added.
The effort to substantially cut taxes for parish residents is being sought after watching for many years as more-and-more millages and taxes were approved by voters. While those were decisions the electorate had every right to make, it has left parish government in a fiscal crisis since there is now only 9 percent of the $202 million budget that the parish has available to pay for state-mandated departments such as the District Attorney’s Office, the Justice Center operation, jail maintenance and the Coroner’s Office.
With costs getting higher each successive year, the cost for those agencies is approximately $22 million a year, but the parish only has $16 million available to pay them, hence, the cuts to the departments.
That situation led to Parish President Mike Cooper cutting the D.A., judges and jail by 30 percent in the 2026 budget, something that projects out to 50 percent for 2027 and perhaps even more after that if a solution is not reached.
The problem has been well known for many years. When Cooper campaigned for parish president his first time in 2019, he discussed the growing problem and, along with his opponent Greg Cromer, both said there was a need for rededication of millages or massive reductions since voters have made it clear they will not approve any new monies.
That has left the public safety agencies facing major problems. Six times since 2016 the parish has asked the public to support some kind of sales tax for public safety, but every one has been turned down. Even though public safety is almost always ranked the most important issue to voters, experts point to “lack of public trust for parish government” as the reason they won’t support the important issue.
Since Cooper was elected, then re-elected in 2023, he has yet to propose any effort to address the problem, besides continually asking the public for sales tax approval.
That led to Sims and Impastato teaming up early this year to form a department called TRAC—the Transparency and Resource Accountability Committee—that was tasked with reviewing the finances of every parish taxing agency in an effort to find efficiencies that could lead to lower millages and taxes.
That eventually led to another financial review committee made up of 50 businessmen who reviewed the St. Tammany Mosquito Abatement District, something that led to the district recently proposing a 30 percent reduction in their millage.
Following that success, Sims called together a meeting of every other taxing agency in the parish to move the plan forward in the new year, which was attended last week by every agency other than the Assessor’s Office, which had a previous commitment. Assessor Louis Fitzmorris said, regarding the meeting, that the agencies “need to listen to the public” when it comes to future decisions.
Sims said he not only had every important leader of the agencies such as the Sheriff’s office, district judges, the 13 fire departments, Mosquito District and Cooper, but he also had parish municipalities represented, the St. Tammany Chamber and the Republican Executive Committee.
“The turnout showed the urgency of our situation,” said Sims. “You can tell that everyone gets it. All the agencies agreed to see what they can do, without cutting services. It’s a great step moving this forward.”
Impastato, who was criticized along with Sims early on in their efforts since some agencies thought they were unfairly being singled out, also agreed that the showing displayed the urgency of the situation.
“We are in a financial crisis,” Impastato said. “But the meeting showed we are all pulling in the same direction. I think a lot of good came out of this.”
The hope from Sims and Impastato, now the leaders to fix the parish financial crisis, is that enough reductions in taxes for residents will allow them to see public officials are serious about reducing their tax burden.
St. Tammany is ranked among the top four highest taxes parishes in the state.
“Since the sales tax failed six times residents don’t really realize that we have saved them $50 million a year already, but it’s clear we have to do more,” Sims said. “And now, if others can follow the lead from the Mosquito District, it’s possible to get this done.”
As for the overall tax reduction for residents in terms of what their annual tax bills need to be reduced to, neither Sims nor Impastato said they had an actual number in their minds just yet.
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