It's been 20 years since voters approved a 4-mill property tax for the St. Tammany Parish Coroner's Office, a measure sought by then-Coroner Peter Galvan to build an $11.4 million facility and DNA lab in Lacombe and pay for the agency's operations.
The tax, which has been rolled back several times over the years and now stands at 3.1 mills, expires next year.
Current Coroner Charles Preston is asking voters to approve a renewal of the tax on the April 29 ballot, saying that the nearly $7.8 million it's expected to generate annually is needed for the agency to provide the same level of service, from death investigations to sexual assault examinations by trained nurses and its mental health duties.
Early voting being April 15.
At a recent Covington City Council meeting, Preston noted that his agency's DNA lab was able to identify the badly burned bodies of homicide victims Ruth Prats and the Rev. Otis Young in a matter of hours while other parishes that rely on the state lab face lengthy waits for DNA results.
His pitch got a warm reception from officials in Covington, where the double homicide last year rocked the community's sense of security.
But not everyone is convinced that the Coroner's Office needs the tax, or least not all of it.
Pushback on renewal
The proposition has gotten pushback from St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper, who said in a memo to the Parish Council last year that the Coroner's Office is asking for more than it needs since bonds for the facility will be paid off next year and the agency has a more than $10 million fund balance.
Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany, a government watchdog group, also weighed in against the tax, calling it "unjustified and greedy" and saying that the intent was for the tax to sunset after the loan was paid off.
Preston counters that the tax was never solely for construction but also pays for operations.
The largest share of the agency's $7.6 million budget is the nearly $4.5 million for salaries and benefits. Preston's salary, $187,474.63, is set by state law as an average of the pay of the sheriff, assessor and clerk of court. But others on staff include doctors and other highly trained personnel.
The bond payments are just over $720,000, with the final to be paid next year. But the cost of the DNA lab continues as the technology advances, Preston said, and the agency also spends hundreds of thousand every year on chemicals needed to operate the lab.
Other upcoming costs include replacing chillers that are vital to preserving evidence as well as bodies. Those are nearing the end of their life span, Preston said, and will cost between $1.5 million and $2 million to replace.
Parish finances at issue
At issue is not just the cost of running a coroner's office. The tax renewal is playing out against a larger, more complicated government funding background that includes the parish government's multiple failures to pass a sales tax for state-mandated costs that include operation of the jail and the 22nd Judicial District Attorney's Office.
It also comes as Preston and the parish government continue to be at odds over control of the agency's property following a law adopted by the Louisiana Legislature in 2021 that returned control of the Coroner's Office budget and its property to the coroner.
That law essentially undid action taken by the Legislature in 2013 to remove control of the agency's finances in the wake of corruption by Galvan that ended with him serving time in prison.
In his memo to the Parish Council, Cooper warned against putting any millage propositions on the ballot this spring, including a public health tax, the coroner's tax and a fire district tax, noting that none are to set to expire in 2023.
"We should not be supporting any proposition in advance of a possible tax proposition that we, St. Tammany Parish Government, desperately need to meet our mandates," Cooper wrote.
But Preston says that the reasonable costs of the Coroner's Office are also the responsibility of parish government under state law.
"If this millage fails, parish government is responsible for funding the budget...the parish government is challenged right now to meet its obligation to fund the District Attorney and to fund the jail," he said.
Paying off bonds
Preston said he hopes to decrease the millage after the bonds are paid next year.
Critics have asked why the fund balance hasn't been tapped to pay off the bonds. Preston said that he wanted to do so, but the parish hasn't yet returned ownership of Coroner's Office property to the agency.
"My hope was that Mike Cooper would have exercised his ministerial duty, signed over the building, and then I would have immediately negotiated the payoff of the bond instead of going out for 3.1 mills," Preston said.
Wrangling over control
In his memo, Cooper also noted the ongoing legal dispute between the parish and the Coroner's Office, which centers on a well and land used for a drainage pond. "We should not ask the public to vote for a millage until this matter is amicably resolved," Cooper wrote.
Despite Cooper's misgivings, the Parish Council didn't oppose putting the coroner's tax on the April ballot.
Nonetheless, the ballot initiative also comes in a year when parish officials, including the coroner, face re-election.
"It's an election year. Nobody is rushing out to support a tax," Preston said. But the April 29 election isn't to decide if he's a good coroner, Preston said.
"The reality of the situation is that the Coroner's Office is critical to public safety, to mental health and to the justice system. If we don’t renew this tax, then we are not going to enjoy the same level of service, which means we’re not going to live in the same safe society that we live in right now."
