VOTER EDUCATION GUIDE: SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2025

By ANTIGRAVITY Voter Guide Staff

Source: ANTIGRAVITY Magazine

April 15, 2025

Orleans Parish Ballot Measures
PW Law Enforcement District
2.46 Mills Renewal – Sheriff – 10 Yrs.

Shall the Sheriff of Orleans Parish, as the governing authority of the Law Enforcement District of the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana (the “District”), continue to levy a tax of not exceeding 2.46 mills on all property subject to taxation in the District (an estimated $13,918,089 reasonably expected at this time to be collected from the levy of the tax for an entire year), for a period of 10 years, beginning with the year 2026 and ending with the year 2035, for the purpose of providing additional funding for the operation, maintenance and upkeep of jails and related facilities, the District and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, with said millage levied each year to be reduced by the millage rate levied that year for the District’s currently outstanding General Obligation Bonds?

Sheriff Susan Hutson is campaigning for what she’s calling the “Safe and Strong Communities Millage Renewal,” which will renew a 10-year tax millage which is estimated to bring in $13.1 million annually, nearly 20% of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office’s (OPSO) budget. If approved, the amount of levied taxes will remain at the current level.

This millage is a revision of the original Orleans Parish Law Enforcement District tax established in the 1990s, a special taxing mechanism allowing the Sheriff’s Office to become independent from City funding and garner additional funding for daily operations and expenses like new jail construction. In April of 2023, Sheriff Hutson attempted to have this tax levy almost doubled from 2.8 mils to 5.5 mills—91% of those who voted rejected it.

This renewal will allow for another 10 years of a tax millage that voters narrowly approved in May 2015 that was predominantly for operations, maintenance, and staffing of local jails and facilities. While the sheriff also receives some funding for the jail from the City Council, which in turn exercises some oversight over how that money is spent, the money raised from the millage is purely under the sheriff’s control, as the nonprofit Bureau of Governmental Research points out.

Unlike other Louisiana jurisdictions, the Orleans Parish sheriff is not the chief law enforcement officer (that’s the chief of police of the New Orleans Police Department) and is not the sole administrator of the jails (it has a shared responsibility with the City of New Orleans to create the budget). OPSO jails people arrested by other police agencies like NOPD and has little ability to control jail population. This tax millage allows the Sheriff’s Office to make monetary decisions on how to maintain facilities, implement policies, and strategize initiatives around medical care, mental health, and re-entry programs. There hasn’t been great transparency on how OPSO has spent the tax revenue, though it has plans in 2026 to allocate 50% of the renewed tax revenue for personnel costs, 30% for support programs for people incarcerated, and 20% for facility maintenance.

OPSO’s facilities have long suffered from understaffing and overcrowding, and according to the Bureau of Governmental Research, the renewed tax funds are unlikely to solve staffing shortages. The City did not approve the Sheriff’s Office’s $18.9 million request for 150 new recruits and there’s still no funding plan for increased staffing needed for the controversial mental health wing of the Orleans Justice Center called Phase III. With a detainee population of 20% over the City’s 1,250 person cap and a 28% staff vacancy rate, OPSO can only rely on the City for the additional funds needed to address the issues holding it back from full compliance with the 2013 federal consent decree, which includes federal mandates for the sheriff to make 174 specific improvements that meet basic constitutional jail conditions and treatment of detainees for at least two consecutive years. As of March 2024, compliance was measured at 42%.

If voters reject the millage, the sheriff would be forced to seek gap funding from the City Council, since the City is obligated to fund the jail, which may give the Council more ability to exercise oversight over jail conditions. The hard truth is that there are over 1,500 detainees that rely on OPSO for their basic human needs and medical care. Without the funds to meet those needs, those who are incarcerated will suffer unduly. But without more assurance that the money would be allocated appropriately—to take care of the people incarcerated there—it’s hard for voters to trust claims about how the money will be spent.

Summary: It should come as no surprise to regular readers of this voter education guide—founded on harm reduction principles and a desire to abolish the carceral-police state—that we suggest a “no” vote on this ballot measure. While we believe that those imprisoned should be guaranteed a modicum of dignity and basic resources, perhaps the answer to the jail and the City’s budgeting issues should not be more tax dollars, but fewer prisoners.

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