06/14/2026
I'm constantly hearing from people who complain about not being provided with information about upcoming elections, what's on the ballot, candidate information, etc.
The information is out there, but times, they are a'changing. Mail is expensive, television time is expensive and newspapers are expensive. Finding this information is dependent on YOU. Take ownership of this responsibility. Read the newspaper, hardcopy or e-edition, listen to local news, follow Facebook groups (no matter how much you may hate Facebook), read newsletters from groups you might belong to, go to neighborhood meetings, etc. You really do need to make an effort to educate yourself before an election, not after an election.
Here is election information for the June 27th election as it relates to St. Tammany. Read it, and research the ramfifications before you vote.
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Later this month, St. Tammany Parish voters will decide whether to keep existing funding for the Sheriff’s Office, mosquito abatement, sewage and garbage services in Slidell, the fire department in Madisonville and parks in Folsom and Abita Springs.
Renewals of property tax millages that keep tax rates steady and provide routine services, such as the seven on the ballot on June 27, typically pass even in tax-averse St. Tammany. But officials who oversee the agencies and departments with funding on the line say they’re not so sure this time around.
In interviews, members of each of the six taxing bodies said that an intense anti-tax sentiment in the parish right now might affect their chances at the polls, with some pointing to voters’ rejection in May of three taxes for streetlighting and the recurrent failure across six different attempts in the last decade to fund parts of parish’s criminal justice agencies with a dedicated tax.
“I’ve never been worried about a renewal before but I’m worried about this one, I’m not going to lie,” said Jennifer Goings, who has led Recreation District 12 in Folsom, which includes Magnolia Park, since the park first opened in 1999.
Her agency’s tax, which has been funding ball fields, playgrounds and a gym in the years since it first passed in 1998, will bring in about $500,000 to continue those services if it passes this month. If it fails, they will try to pass the tax again, but after the tax expires in 2028, the park would likely have to cut down to a “bare-bones” staff, reduce the maintenance of fields and increase registration fees for park users, she said.
Early voting started on Friday.
In a possible sign of the heightened concerns around the votes, a who’s who of parish law enforcement officials appeared in a video posted online Wednesday asking voters to support St. Tammany sheriff’s deputies, whose salaries are paid for by the millage that is on the ballot.
The 4.31-mill tax for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office has been renewed by voters since 1978 and pays for the salaries and benefits of 142 patrol officers, said the sheriff’s department’s chief financial officer, Lauren Hudson, in an interview. The tax expires next year.
But the vote will come less than a month after Sheriff Randy Smith’s arrest on one count of felony battery and two counts of disturbing the peace. Smith allegedly physically attacked a longtime critic at a steakhouse near Madisonville on May 29.
If the sheriff’s tax fails, “it’s not going to hurt the sheriff, it’s going to hurt the deputies,” Hudson said.
On Thursday, the parish government issued a news release informing voters in detail that because of their choice last month to reject taxes for streetlights in three areas of the parish, lights in those areas will be turned off.
The anti-tax sentiment hasn’t come out of nowhere. St. Tammany voters have shot down six different attempts to help fund the criminal justice system with a dedicated tax in the last decade amid increasingly dire warnings from parish leaders about cuts that might be required.
But political observer James Hartman, a veteran of countless St. Tammany campaigns, including some of Smith’s, said he thinks “the general anti-government zeitgeist is at a fever pitch.”
“The recent incident with the sheriff is just the cherry on top,” Hartman said.
‘Reputation for voting’
Of course, many taxes that fund the parish’s dozens of different independent taxing agencies pass without problems every year.
During the same period that voters have rejected the taxes to pay for the parish’s criminal justice system, a recent report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office found that residents approved dozens of other taxes for services like firefighting, recreation and lighting.
“The voters are renewing mill-ages for agencies they are happy with and that they trust and that they feel like are needed and necessary,” said Goings, the head of Magnolia Park in Folsom.
Sam Caruso Jr., a well-known Slidell-based political consultant, is helping St. Tammany Parish Mosquito Abatement District as it seeks a renewal of its 2.95-mill tax that would generate about $9 million annually and pay for monitoring and treatment for mosquitoes around the parish.
He said that despite its conservative reputation, the parish has “long had a reputation for voting for really high quality-of-life things, whether it’s protecting us from mosquitoes or a really nice park.”
Still, Caruso said he thought an anti-tax sentiment grew in the 2010s. In addition to the growth of the population after Hurricane Katrina, Caruso noted that St. Tammany also saw a series of public corruption scandals involving its top leaders, including former Sheriff Jack Strain, former District Attorney Walter Reed, and former Coroner Peter Galvan.
More recently, he said voters may be responding to high costs of living, like gas prices and insurance costs, and higher assessments on their properties due to the 2024 reassessment.
Last year, some parish officials embarked on what they said would be a financial review of all of the parish’s independent taxing agencies to see if there was room for efficiencies and tax reductions.
For now, the Mosquito Abatement District has been the only agency to officially go under the review, and it sparked a lawsuit as the agency’s leaders took issue with the review process.
It’s unclear what effect the review might have on the agency’s chances of renewing its tax. Director of Mosquito Abatement Kevin Caillouet said his agency has tried to respond to the parish’s goals of reducing taxes, and noted they are asking voters to renew their millage at 2.95 mills, compared with the 4.2 mills they were previously approved for.
“We’ve listened to what’s been said, to what the taxpayers have said, we’ve made changes to our own budget, we’ve let go of positions, we’ve made some pretty dramatic changes on the administrative side of things,” Caillouet said in an interview.
Cailouet
And even with the last six rejections, the Parish Council voted this month once again to put a tax on the ballot to help fund the criminal justice system.
Lights out near Covington
Some officials have pointed to residents’ rejection last month of taxes for lighting in three different parish neighborhoods as an indicator of how voters are feeling right now.
Parish Council Administrator Mary Burckell said some of the lights in a neighborhood near Covington are now expected to be turned off by June 19. Even if the tax had passed, it would not have started generating revenue until the end of the year, though Burckell said they at least could have sought a bond based on the anticipated revenue to keep the lights on.
The lighting taxes were on the same ballot as a series of constitutional amendments that voters rejected last month. In the last two years, voters across the state have regularly rejected new tax and revenue initiatives, noted political consultant and St. Tammany resident Lionel Rainey III.
“Lately, critical infrastructure renewals, the funds that simply keep our everyday services running, are getting swept up in that same frustration,” he said in a text message.
Fandal
Regardless of how they vote in June, Slidell Mayor Randy Fandal said he hopes residents do their research on the tax before the election. The city, which has a population of about 28,000, has a 4.37-mill tax that would generate $1.49 million to pay for garbage collection, and another 4.45-mill tax that would generate $1.52 million to pay for sewage infrastructure. If the renewals don’t pass, the taxes will stop generating revenue at the end of this year, Fandal said.
“I understand the sentiment of everybody right now, but all I would ask is please don’t just walk in the ballot booth and hit the ‘no’ on everything just because you’re mad,” Fandal said.
Email Willie Swett at willie. [email protected].
