If you ask St. Tammany Parish residents what their top concerns are for the parish, you’re likely to hear uncontrolled growth, traffic, and drainage. When Scott Chotin asked the League to spearhead the Citizens Agenda Project in 1998, we heard it time after time. These same concerns are expressed at every Zoning, Planning, and Council meeting. And now you’re telling me we’re the “Growth Parish” for the 21st Century? It had better not be a replay of the past forty years! St. Tammany Parish’s population in 1970 was approximately 63,585; the Louisiana State Census Data Center projects our 2010 population at 246,910; and in 2030, we’re projected to have 459,160 people living here. Many demographers think that St. Tammany is poised to become the largest parish in the state. 

These projections are based on demographics, geography, and hard work. St. Tammany is BIG: 854 square miles of land and 270 square miles of water; higher land elevations; and much of our land is located north of I-12. According to recent...

Read More »

“The genius of the Founders was taking a tool of government and making it a tool of political empowerment for the governed over their government.” (Census Bureau quote) 

Most St. Tammany Parish residents will receive their 2010 Census form in the mail March 15 – 17. The Census Bureau will be hand-delivering the form to residences in Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and parts of eight other parishes impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Residents living in group quarters and jails, college dormitories, military barracks, nursing homes and shelters, and those who have been displaced by natural disasters, will be visited by Census Bureau workers for in-person counts. 

The Census is a snapshot of the United States on April 1, 2010. It is not a wish list of where you want to move next week or next year, despite the statements made by Mayor Nagin and Craig Taffaro asking former residents to return to their former residences on April 1. It is imperative that fast-growing parishes, such as St. Tammany,...

Read More »

I’ve been answering the phone “Who Dat?” ever since the Saints won the NFC Championship and weighing my options regarding what is over the top Saints décor and what’s just a reasonable response to this momentous occasion.  So far, nothing is over the top and everything Saints is winning out.  The Super Bowl will be followed in quick succession by Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game.  

But seriously, February is going to be filled with political activities that affect all of us.  Voters in New Orleans will be going to the polls on February 6, the day before the Super Bowl.  They’ll have the opportunity to either elect a new mayor or send the top two candidates to a run-off.  We’ll have a much better idea of the make-up of the Council and see whether voters are paying attention to the Assessor’s race as well as other judicial offices.  Make no mistake about it: St. Tammany needs for New Orleans to be strong and well governed.  

Closer to home, candidates will have qualified for the Mandeville Mayoral...

Read More »

                    The recent reports of generous gift giving by the Jefferson Parish Government employees to Parish President Aaron Broussard echo the gift-giving practices in Mandeville. Where did this practice of employees being pressured by department heads to pony up money for expensive holiday and birthday gifts for the head honcho begin? What kind of culture creates an environment where elected officials are comfortable accepting gifts from their employees and government contractors? Should the state enact laws that more strictly limit the use of campaign funds? And lastly, should public employees be prohibited from working on politician’s political campaigns?  

There is no doubt that the residents of Louisiana deserve better behavior from our politicians. We have endured a seemingly endless parade of public officials accused of wrongdoing; some of the cases have gone through the legal system and resulted in convictions. State Senators, Parish Presidents, Chief Administrative Officers, Mayors,...

Read More »

             It started in January with an analysis of the Riverboat Gaming District and the changes the Parish Council had made to the new Unified Development Code that made locating a gaming establishment a possibility. Parish President Kevin Davis floated this idea as part of a larger entertainment district. The river boat gaming plan sunk under its own weight when over forty St. Tammany Parish ministers and countless residents took aim at this idea. 

            In February, I highlighted the new and improved White House website. The site is easy to use and informative. More voters are tech-savvy and expect governmental agencies at all levels to provide access to timely and relevant data. 

            In March, I railed against the idea that St. Tammany Parish residents would fare well if the homestead exemption was raised. It’s time to re-examine all of our tax policies in Louisiana. Will we have the political will to place everything on the table, including the homestead exemption sacred cow, and reprioritize government responsibilities, revenues, and spending? 

...

Read More »

                  The torch is passed and the work of the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany continues, but it is entwined with a heavy heart and a deeper sense of the responsibility we have to the community. Last month we said our farewells to Mandeville resident Norma Gavin. She was a League member for over forty years. When Norma and her husband Lou retired and moved to Mandeville, both of them embraced the community they chose to call home. Norma was elected to the local League board and then later became President of the state League.

                  She championed open and transparent government, health care issues, judicial and juvenile justice reforms, housing, and poverty concerns. Her inquisitive and irreverent nature disarmed many politicians and colleagues over the years. I had to stifle laughter on many occasions because I knew that Norma was poking fun at those in power, but doing so in a way that made them think she had paid them a compliment.

                  Norma followed...

Read More »

                  Voters scattered about all over St. Tammany Parish will be asked to make decisions about new taxes, tax renewals, bond issues, and a new School Board Member in District Nine on Saturday, October 17. These elections typically have very low voter participation. The League is taking this opportunity to identify which voters will have the opportunity to participate in this election and what is on their ballot. It doesn’t help that some of the voters in certain precincts are in the voting districts and some are not. Get out your Voter Registration Card, call the Registrar of Voters, or use the Secretary of State’s web site to verify if you’re in the district or not.

 School Board Member District Nine

                   Voters living in the Slidell area will be voting for a new School Board Member to complete the unexpired term of Carmen Johnson who resigned the seat earlier this year due to new job responsibilities. Appointed board member Mike Gambrell chose not to seek this...

Read More »

How can we be protected from storm surge?

                     Most of us in St. Tammany don’t think of our Lake Pontchartrain shoreline as “coast”. But it is. We live on an estuary. It is part of an intricate ecosystem that developed thousands of years ago that evolved into a series of water bodies. St. Tammany had one of the largest coastal wetland areas remaining in Lake Pontchartrain. “The formation of these coastal marshes is dated at 4,365 years ago....”1 One segment in our defense against storm surge is the series of barrier islands known as the Chandeleur Islands which started to form approximately 2,000 years ago. Today, those islands have been terribly damaged and cannot protect us as they used to. This subjects our coast to more storm surge.

                      In the early 1990's some scientists had already sounded the alarm about the Louisiana Gulf coast and a large swath of the northshore’s coast had been submerged by lake waters. The League of Women Voters of St. Tammany protested...

Read More »

              I laugh out loud when I hear people proclaim, “America has the best health care system in the world.” I defy anyone to identify exactly what the current health care system is in America. The United States spent $2.4 trillion on health care in 2008; it’s projected to reach $4.3 trillion by 2016. At this rate, we’ll be spending 20% of our GDP by 2017.  Germany (10.7 % GDP), France (9.5%), and Canada (9.7%) provide universal coverage for half what we’re spending. In 2006, 46 cents of every dollar spent on health services came directly from government sources.

             There are over 46 million Americans without health insurance and this number is skyrocketing. Let’s review who the uninsured are: according to KeithHennessey.com, a blog run by a former Bush Administration White House economist, there were 45.7 million uninsured in 2007. 6.4% actually have Medicaid insurance; another 4.3% are eligible for Medicaid/CHIP; 9.3% are non-citizens; 10.1% make more than 300% of poverty (approximately...

Read More »

 

Many of our regional and state-wide nonprofit organizations have released reports recently. Here’s a short summary of what’s available online for “information junkies” who always want to know more.

Bureau of Governmental Research: www.bgr.org

 Who’s Behind the Tree? The Homestead Exemption and Taxpayers in the New Orleans Area, March 2009

Not everyone’s a winner in St. Tammany Parish if the homestead exemption is raised to $160K. Owners of rental property and commercial business owners will experience approximately a 34% increase in their property taxes. An owner of a $400K home would pay $40 less than they do now. Of the approximately 71,320 eligible homesteads in St. Tammany Parish, 13,129 are valued for $75K or less. If the homestead exemption was raised to $160K, then 57% or 40,385 eligible homesteads would not pay anything for parish government services. (The name of the report is from a quote from the late Louisiana Sen. Russell Long, “Don’t...

Read More »