[StBernard] St. Bernard Sheriff's Office asks for higher property taxes

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Sheriff's Office asks for higher property taxes

Updated: Feb 01, 2013 4:09 PM CST
 

Chalmette, La. - Homeowners in St. Bernard Parish could soon be facing
higher property taxes.  St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann is seeking
to put a 15-mill property tax increase on the ballot on April 6th. 

Since taking office last July, Sheriff Pohlmann has already been forced to
lay off 50 employees.   He says despite those cuts and continuing
cost-saving changes, his department still faces a large deficit. Pohlmann
says the parish is feeling the effects of a national economic downturn. He
also says things are made worse by Hurricane Katrina's lingering toll on the
parish's tax base which hasn't recovered sufficiently to fund the operations
of government agencies.

The 15 mills would bring in an estimated $4.5 million a year for 10  years,
when the tax would expire. Based on a home valued at $150,000, with a
homestead exemption, the tax would cost an owner less than $10 a month, the
sheriff said.

"I have cut the budget in many ways and have reduced the number of employees
from 315 in January 2012 to 265, the lowest number in many years,'' Sheriff
Pohlmann said. By comparison, there were 380 sheriff's employees before
Hurricane Katrina.

"It would be difficult to cut the number of employees further without
jeopardizing the Sheriff's Office's ability to keep St. Bernard safe, our
Number 1 responsibility,'' he said.

"We have about 38,000 residents compared to the 68,000 here before the
storm,'' the sheriff said. "While some new businesses have come to the
parish, we have also lost several large supermarkets and other retail
outlets which didn't return after Katrina, ones that helped bring in sales
tax needed to run government agencies. Our parish economy is smaller,
leaving less tax money to work with.''

"And despite a smaller population we are handling almost as many calls for
service each year as before the storm," the sheriff said,  "making nearly as
many arrests, running an adult prison at near capacity and have a juvenile
detention center we must keep open because there has be a place to hold
juvenile offenders."

Sheriff Pohlmann said, "We have determined, after consulting experts
including accountants, economists and other Louisiana sheriffs, that the
best way to eliminate the deficit and allow the Sheriff's Office a revenue
source that provides the current high level of services is a 15-mill
property tax.''

"It would allow us to fill shortages in critical enforcement personnel,
maintain our vehicle fleet, maintain and improve our information technology
division and operate and staff two sub-stations that will re-open at our
parish line with New Orleans,'' he said. Rising insurance costs could also
be dealt with.

Previous sheriff's budgets since Katrina haven't accounted for staffing the
two new sub-stations that will be coming back at the parish line on St.
Claude Avenue and Judge Perez Drive. "Their presence in the past were one of
our most effective crime-fighting strategies,'' the sheriff said of the
sub-stations.

"We have responded to a money crunch in many ways,'' Sheriff Pohlmann said.
"I put a hiring freeze in place by the end of 2011 after I was elected
sheriff that fall but was still six months from taking office."

No new jobs have been added and a number of people have been transferred
from one division to another to fill in personnel gaps, he said.

"We have also instituted changes in many other areas,'' the sheriff said,
"including a major overhaul of the policy on take-home department vehicles,
including mandating deputies must live in the parish to be eligible for
that. No vehicle is supposed to be taken overnight outside this parish."

"Before I took office we overhauled our rank structure, reducing the rank of
a number of people, which also achieved a savings in salaries,'' the sheriff
said. The Sheriff's Office has also made other cost-saving changes including
ending some professional services contracts and making cuts of in cell phone
and land line expenses that will save about $90,000 a year.

"Remember, St. Bernard remains the safest parish in the New Orleans area and
one of the safest in the state,'' Sheriff Pohlmann said.

"If a resident or a business needing service calls us we have an excellent
response time, particularly for any emergency. That has always been what we
are known for,'' the sheriff said.

"And I believe we have the best qualified and best trained personnel we have
ever had,'' he said.

"But we need to prepare for the future. To continue to do the things that
keeps this parish safe we need the money which makes it possible,'' Sheriff
Pohlmann said

 

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