Over the past several months CCST has continued its efforts on many fronts, however our biggest focus as of late has been to dive deep into the budgetary situation within St. Tammany Government. The agencies and/or boards are, by law, required to fund and the proposed reallocation of taxes that is slated to be on the March 25th ballot. Ironically, what now has come front and center is the large jump in property taxes from our Tax Assessor for a majority of citizens across our Parish.
All these areas are interlinked and reflect a more complex understanding of the depth of the problems, while also trying to bridge differences amongst governmental entities so that our leaders can work together to achieve the desired goals, which includes fiscal responsibility, prioritizing where money should be allocated to maintain and even improve the quality life in St. Tammany.
CCST has been working behind the scenes with the Parish Government and District Attorney’s office to help build a bridge of appreciation and understanding and to show our community, how without a properly funded DA’s office, everything else will fall apart within our Parish. Recently CCST sponsored three- ½ hour meeting with leadership on both sides of the isle, to help to create a better understanding on what is needed to maintain our quality of life as it relates to the ever increasing numbers of crimes in our Parish.
We believe this meeting, although the extremely long and at times difficult in nature it was indeed a big step forward, and helping to bring resolution to a difficult situation. To date the there has been almost a million combined dollars spent of our tax dollars on a lawsuit initiated by the Parish President against the DA’s office. The money could have been used to fund the DA’s office in the remaining months of 2024.
Over the past several months CCST has continued its efforts on many fronts, however our biggest focus as of late has been to dive deep into the budgetary situation within St. Tammany Government; the agencies and/or boards they are by law required to fund; and the proposed reallocation of taxes slated to be on the March 25th ballot. Ironically, now front and center is the Tax Assessor’s large jump in property taxes for many Parish’s citizens.
All these areas are interlinked and reflect the need for a better mutual understanding of the deeply complex problems and differences amongst governmental entities, so that our leaders can work together to achieve the desired goals. These include fiscal responsibility and prioritizing where money should be allocated to maintain and even improve the quality life in St. Tammany.
CCST has been working behind the scenes with the Parish Government and District Attorney’s office. We hope to encourage mutual appreciation and understanding between the agencies, especially in properly funding the DA’s office, as we believe those funds are essential to bettering our community and seeing results of our efforts. Recently CCST sponsored a 3 ½ hour meeting with leadership on both sides of the isle, to discuss exactly what is needed to maintain our quality of life as it relates to the ever-increasing numbers of crimes in our Parish.
We believe this meeting, although the extremely long and at times difficult in nature, was indeed a big step forward towards resolution of a difficult situation. To date the there has been almost a million dollars of our tax dollars spent on a lawsuit initiated by the Parish President against the DA’s office. This money could have been used to fund the DA’s office for the remainder of 2024, but instead it’s been wasted unnecessary lawsuits.
We are unable to discuss the nuts and bolts of the meetings and discussions but remain hopefully confident that a path forward has been created. Everyone needs to put their big boy pants on and work together to solve our Parish’s fiscal shortfalls.
As previously mentioned, many of the citizens in St. Tammany have seen a major increase in their tax assessments by our elected Assessor Louis Fitzmorris. There are many questions we should all be collectively asking as these increases parallel an already difficult financial situation in our Parish and through-out our nation. The Assessor’s office also should not be using public funds to finance a public propaganda campaign against agencies or districts stating that they are "Raising Taxes", when in fact it is not the case.
Some of the propaganda spewing from the Assessor's office seems to be politically motivated and CCST will do a deep dive into this matter. What the citizens need to know is that the Assessor's office has failed their responsibility for years and now its ugly head is emerging from the depths of the black hole onto the backs of the citizens. The citizens need to know that the Assessor's office has intentionally hidden tax increases in their potentially unconstitutional and illegal "cushion" without notifying the public or giving them their legal right to vote on such a cushion. Of course they will deny the large built in "cushion", but we have their own words in email documents.
As Troy Dugas said in one email; "we are providing a large cushion for most all taxing districts." If you look at your tax bill you will see that most taxing bodies have not raised their millage, but instead these large increases are self-induced by our illustrious Assessor Louis Fitzmorris and his under-link, Troy Dugas who really runs the show.
CCST is going to do a deep dive on this very important issue, because we all know property values have declined dramatically over the past 18 months, and our Assessor is making his analysis based on when the market was high. There should be a cap on any tax increases, and the citizens should not be held hostage to an agency that has failed to effectively do its job.
On a final note CCST is also involved in many other issues in this parish including some on-going possible criminal and/or unethical situations, while also keeping a close hand on the Library Board situation, including the lawsuit filed by disgruntled past Board Members.
We will do our best to keep folks informed, however sometimes we must remain silent because many things are in play.
Respectfully;
CCST INC.
For more information on CCST’s efforts, follow us on Facebook: Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany.
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