NICHOLLS ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR OH LA LA
October 25, 2018
TAY MAKING HIS MARK
October 25, 2018
Terrebonne Parish voters are casting early ballots this week for a tax proposal floated by Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, a half-cent sales tax that he says will pay for school resource officers throughout the parish and also shore up a budget that has spiraled downward for at least three years.
Election Day is Nov. 6, when voters will give a final decision on the tax, choose an appeals court judge, elect school board members and decide on constitutional amendments.
Larpenter is a largely popular sheriff first elected in 1985, who remained in office until 2007, and then returned to the post in 2011. He will be on the ballot for re-election next year. But increasingly, the proposed tax facing voters now is taking the shape on an early referendum on the sheriff’s credibility and the public’s overall trust.
The tax is expected to generate an estimated $10.6 million in its first year if approved. The ballot item states the money will be dedicated and used “for the purpose of providing deputy sheriffs in schools, ancillary equipment for deputy sheriffs, and salaries and benefits of law enforcement.”
Several sheriffs in Louisiana, Larpenter included, seized on the potential for added revenue when a “temporary” tax of 1 percent was partially scuttled by the legislature earlier this year, leaving a tax of .49 cents statewide. Adding 1/2 percent to that scheme, Larpenter reasons, means that consumers will see no appreciable difference in the cost of goods and services. Of greater importance, he said, is the money will provide services directly within Terrebonne, not scattered statewide as with the former tax.
“A yes vote on the half-cent sales tax on November 6th means a trained law enforcement officer will be placed at every school in Terrebonne Parish, public and private,” Larpenter maintains, labeling the tax as a “Terrebonne Safety Initiative.”
Critics note, however, that the school resource officer cost projected by Larpenter only takes into account half of the estimated annual sales tax take. The other half, they say.
will go instead to buffering a budget that shows consistent losses and continued deficit spending. Taxpayers, they maintain, should not have to foot the bill for what they see as fiscal mismanagement and lack of belt-tightening. And if, as the most current budget projections show, Larpenter has reined in his budget, then they question why the tax should be levied to begin with.
In 2017, the Sheriff’s Office accounting revenue over expenditures stood at a deficit of more than $5 million. In 2016 the deficit was at nearly $3.5 million. The year before, expenditures trumped revenues by nearly $1.5 million. Revenues exceeded expenditures last in 2014, by $1,191,204.
Based on 2017 revenues, the tax would provide a 40 percent budget increase.
When questioned about the budgeting issues, Larpenter acknowledges that he is in deficit, but he flatly denies that it is caused by improper business decisions. For nearly two years he has had meetings with his staff during which he explained why they would not receive raises, as well as the potential of stopping popular programs like inmate repair and refurbishing of schools, non-profit headquarters and public infrastructure. Larpenter said he has continued those programs because the public desires and supports them.
To keep services at the level he wishes, he has borrowed $4 million over a five-year period, a move he said he does not like making. Due to the types of loans, the Sheriff is required to pay them back within a year.
“I have lost $5 million trying to get back to where we were and I don’t see the economy getting better,” he said. If the economy does improve, Larpenter said, it is possible that “someone” could take another look at the continued need for the tax.
But some voters don’t place a lot of hope in that, or in the concept of adding another tax to make up for the Sheriff’s budget woes. Several flat out question that qualified law enforcement officers will be placed in the schools. Among them is Joseph Malbrough of Houma.
“No more damn taxes,” he wrote in a Facebook post verified as his by The Times. “We pay enough already. There is no way you are going to convince me that a seasoned law enforcement officer will be placed in every school. if the school wants them in the schools let them pay for them. We in this parish pay way too many taxes, already one of the highest in the state.”
Tax fatigue is evident during interviews of voters and potential voters, who recall giving okays to extra taxes meant for teacher raises and the levee system that protects Terrebonne Parish. Several have stated that the school sales tax also helped fund a raise for Superintendent Philip Martin, something they had not counted on.
However, a raise for Martin and any proposed raises for school board members did not come from the sales tax. Nonetheless, some voters maintain that it did.
Martin himself supports Larpenter’s proposal, as does the Terrebonne Parish School Board. The School District currently pays for the resource officers it uses from both the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office and the Houma Police Department, eight in all.
“It’s such a scary proposition to not have resource officers and Sheriff Larpenter feels the same way,” said Martin. “He has proposed a resource officer in every school public and private, including the elementary schools.”
The tax, Martin acknowledged, will return payment of school resource officers to the Sheriff’s budget, not the schools. Up until recently Larpenter’s budget paid for resource officers but he halted the practice because of the budget issues. Martin was asked if he feels the proposed use of the tax will be adhered to.
“The proposal is specifically worded,” Martin said. “He can’t change it if he wanted to once the voters have voted. I am not only comfortable with it, I am campaigning for it. Schools are becoming targets nationwide. And having so many resource officers has so many fringe benefits. Kids are able to associate with law enforcement officers in a healthy, positive environment.”
Some of Larpenter’s critics have said he cannot legally place resource officers in private schools, making his promise hollow. But the Sheriff’s Office maintains that they can legally do so, in the same way that school bus transportation is required to be provided for private schools. State law, Larpenter notes, leaves no question on the matter.
Louisiana R.S. 17:416.19 provides requirements for school resource officers and includes a provision that any public or private school may enter into an agreement with a law enforcement agency for that purpose.
Asked why his financials continues to be at deficit – even with the elimination of resource officers from his budget – Larpenter provided detailed numbers.
Revenues reached a high for the Sheriff’s Office in 2014, at $29,898,903.00, according to records provided by Larpenter. They declined slightly in 2015, at $29,437,250.00 in 2015. A big difference, according to Larpenter’s numbers, was felt in 2016 when revenues fell to $28,760,964.00. Last year they fell to $26,593,067.00.
The total drop in revenue from 2015 to 2017 was more than $3 million. Among the items disappearing from Larpenter’s revenue stream were healthy reimbursements from the state for Department of Correction inmates held at the Terrebonne jail.
Program expenses, Larpenter said, providing detailed records, rose from more than $28 million in 2014 to more than $32 million in 2017, despite cutbacks.
Terrebonne Sheriff Jerry Larpenter talks in his office during an interview.
