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NEWS ABOUT CANT'S FIGHT AGAINST NEW TAXES CANT WAGING VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST PROPOSED NEW SCHOOL TAX CANT has been been waging a vigorous campaign against the proposed property tax millage increase by the Jefferson Parish School Board to pay for a $200 million bond issue. The public vote on the tax has, however, been postponed until the beginning of next year. CANT Chairman Margaret Baird and Vice-Chairman Margie Seemann, as well as other CANT members and supporters, have spoken against the tax at the School Board meetings on August 5th and September 2nd, as well as at the public hearing on the tax on August 25th. CANT has taken exception to a statement in the Times-Picayune article which reported on the September 2nd School Board meeting, and Margie submitted the following as-yet-unpublished letter-to-the-editor: Please don't trivialize CANT's anti-tax efforts Re: "Board votes to delay tax proposal - Millage tentatively set for March ballot," Jenny Hurwitz, Thursday, September 3, 2009 I take offense to Ms. Jenny Hurwitz’s statement in the above Times-Picayune article with respect to the anti-tax speeches made by Citizens Against New Taxes (CANT) Chairman, Margaret Baird, and myself at the Jefferson Parish School Board Meeting this past Wednesday. In her article, the only thing she said about the speakers in opposition to the tax is the following derogatory statement: "A handful of residents spoke, including several who have appeared at nearly every meeting to protest the prospect of new taxes." CANT members have spent a huge amount of time researching the proposed tax issue and are continuing to research this issue. We have obtained copies of School Board financial documents, including budgets and audits for the past few years, and Margaret, who is a retired CPA, has thoroughly analyzed these documents. Even now, we are awaiting a response to a Public Records Act request from the Jefferson School System. Our research has also included printing and analyzing EVERY article in the Times-Picayune archives about the School Board for the last five years, as well as Google searches for information. We resent the implication that there is no substance to our opposition to the tax. Ms. Hurwitz, please do not trivialize our anti-tax effort—I doubt that any of the other speakers at the School Board meeting have spent as much time as we have researching the School System tax issue. Margie Seemann Vice-Chairman, Citizens Against New Taxes (CANT) _____________________________________________________________________ CANT ON THE RADIO OPPOSING THE SCHOOL TAX CANT Chairman Margaret Baird and Vice-Chairman Margie Seemann were on the radio (WGSO 990 a.m.) this past Tuesday, September 1st. They were interviewed by John Roberts for 45 minutes, mostly about their reasons for opposing the proposed Jefferson Parish School System’s property tax millage to pay for a $200 million bond issue, although at the end of the interview he let them talk about their proposed legislation for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. The two state laws they are promoting are:
They also mentioned that they were going to Washington, D.C. on September 12th for the "March on Washington" to oppose President Obama’s healthcare plan. Roberts asked them to call in to his show when they get back to give a report on the event.
_____________________________________________________________________ CANT MENTIONED IN T-P ARTICLE ABOUT PROPOSED SCHOOL TAX CANT was mentioned in the Times-Picayune article, "Roussel to draw list of school projects - Property tax would pay for construction," published on August 7th. This article provides some of the remarks made by CANT officers at the Jefferson School Board meeting on August 5th against the proposed $200 million bond issue. The following is a quote from this article: By the way, we do want modern, up-to-date schools for the Jefferson School System, but we want to accomplish this by remodeling and technology-updating existing schools, not building new ones.
_____________________________________________________________________ CANT IN THE NEWS AT DAVID VITTER’S TOWN HALL MEETING CANT officers Margie Seemann and Margaret Baird and others participated in the anti-Obamacare activities outside of the Yenni Building at Sen. David Vitter’s Townhall Meeting on August 10th. Margie had her photo on the front page of the Times-Picayune on August 11th distributing our homemade anti-Obama healthcare signs for others to hold. The signs said such things as "STOP OBAMACARE," "NO GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTHCARE," "KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF OUR HEALTHCARE," "VOTE NO ON OBAMA HEALTHCARE PLAN," etc.
_____________________________________________________________________ RECOMMENDED CHANGES TO STATE LAWS FOR JPSO We have formed a companion organization to Citizens Against New Taxes (CANT) called Citizens for Good Government (CFGG). While CANT is a tax-fighting group, the purpose of Citizens for Good Government is to identify fraud, waste, and corruption in government and to promote legislation to correct these evils. Since our research has identified numerous problems with recent actions taken by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO), we have prepared the draft document, "RECOMMENDED CHANGES TO STATE LAWS FOR THE JPSO," a summary of which is included below. This document presents our justification for enacting two new state laws which apply to the JPSO. We are currently contacting and meeting with legislators to request that they introduce and/or support the legislation which we have recommended when the Louisiana Legislature meets next year. We intend to lobby all of the legislators in the state to support this legislation, which we believe will go a long way toward correcting the problems which we have identified with the JPSO. Citizens for Good Government does want everyone to know that we believe that Sheriff Newell Normand is doing a good job in keeping crime down and keeping our community safe. Our problem with the Sheriff is with some of his personnel and financial policies—we feel that some of his personnel policies are unfair to his employees and we don’t believe that he has managed the finances of the Sheriff’s Office in a fiscally responsible manner. Summary of recommended changes to state laws by Citizens for Good Government (August 30, 2009)Because we disagree with a number of actions taken by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff and believe that they are legal, but absolutely wrong and unacceptable, Citizens for Good Government believes that it will be necessary to pass two state laws to correct these actions.
CANT HAS LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR PUBISHED ABOUT SCHOOL TAX CANT Chairman Margaret Baird had the following letter-to-the-editor published, giving some of our arguments against the proposed Jefferson Parish School System’s property tax millage increase:
_____________________________________________________________________ ANOTHER UNPUBLISHED CANT ANTI-TAX LETTER-TO-THE EDITOR The following anti-tax letter-to-the-editor was submitted to the Times-Picayune, but it was not selected for publication. It was in response to an article about the Sheriff postponing the vote on his ¼-cent sales tax increase until next year. A Wise Decision Re: Push to raise Jeff sales tax stalls, August 06, 2009 We believe that the decision to postpone the ¼-cent sales tax increase primarily for the benefit of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO) was a wise one, although we would have preferred that they cancel these plans altogether. This tax increase was primarily intended to raise law enforcement salaries. We are, however, pleased that on July 1st the deputies received a $900 per year raise in State Supplemental Pay, so that the salary for Jefferson Parish deputies after one year on the job is now up to $39,480. The article also indicates that the Jefferson School Board is considering a proposal for a property tax increase to finance $200 million in bonds for new construction. An important reason why we are opposing this bond issue is the long-time declining enrollment in Jefferson schools, which has resulted in a significant overcapacity in school facilities. It would be far more cost effective to close unneeded schools, consolidate underutilized schools, and to remodel and technology-update the viable older schools, where required, without raising taxes. By the way, one of the reasons that so many property owners in Jefferson had huge property tax increases is that both the JPSO and the Jefferson School Board voted to roll forward the property tax millage rate this past year. We think the residents of Jefferson Parish are taxed enough. Margie Seemann Vice-Chairman, Citizens A gainst New TaxesCANT WAS IN THE NEWS AGAIN, PARTICIPATING IN JPSO BUDGET MEETING
We are still upset about the $30 million loan quietly made by JPSO on August 1, 2008, which they said was for capital projects that they had already funded from their huge Katrina surplus. The taxpayers of Jefferson have already started repaying this loan with interest, and for the next 19 years we will be paying approximately $2.3 million a year to service this unnecessary loan.
_____________________________________________________________________ CANT HAS LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR PUBLISHED ON JPSO BUDGET On June 20th CANT again had a letter-to-the-editor published in the Times-Picayune, which I have pasted below. Since CANT is a taxpayer watchdog group, we felt that it was important to make Jefferson taxpayers aware of some of the issues we have with the Sheriff, prior to the budget meeting on June 25th, at which CFO Paul Rivera presented the 2009-10 JPSO Proposed Budgets, as well as the 2008-09 Final Budgets. As we have said in the past, CANT believes that the Sheriff is doing a good job in fighting crime in Jefferson and keeping our neighborhoods safe. However, because of our research, we believe that he has NOT been managing our taxpayer dollars in a fiscally responsible way. We have obtained a large number of JPSO financial documents through Public Records Act requests, and CANT Chairman and retired CPA Margaret Baird has thoroughly analyzed these documents. As a result, we have compiled much important information with regard to the finances of JPSO, in addition to the information included in our letter-to-the-editor. As taxpayer watchdogs, we will continue to monitor the finances of the JPSO. Published letter-to-the-editor: Jefferson Parish sheriff's budget needs clarity, Saturday, June 20, 2009 Re: "Spending outpaces revenue in Jeff budget," Metro, June 12. We hope that this year's Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office budget, to be presented June 26, more accurately reflects the true finances and intentions of JPSO than last year's budget did. The 2008-09 proposed budget did not mention the intention of JPSO to borrow $30 million in tax revenue bonds on Aug. 1, 2008, even though the Louisiana Bond Commission had given final approval six days before the budget meeting for the sheriff to issue these bonds. To make matters worse, the sheriff later said he was going to use this loan money for the crime lab and some other projects, even though he had previously funded these projects out of his huge Katrina surplus. Another issue of concern is the inaccuracy in the revised (final) budget for 2007-08. One significant inaccuracy was that the revised budget projected the General Fund surplus on June 30, 2008, to be only $22 million, while the actual General Fund surplus on that date from the 2007-08 audit was $28,447,317. These inaccuracies caused significant errors in the 2008-09 budget. We believe that the taxpayers of Jefferson Parish have a right to expect more accuracy in the budget numbers presented by the sheriff's office and to expect the office to be honest in letting taxpayers know their intentions. Margie Seemann, Vice-Chairman, Citizens Against New Taxes CANT Officers on WLAE-TV (COX Channel 14) on Friday, February 13th at 7:30 PM and again on Sunday, February 15th at 10:00 PM
Margaret repeated her charge that the Sheriff borrowed $30 million in tax revenue bonds on August 1st, 2008 without any publicity and that the reasons he gave for borrowing this money was for the crime lab and other projects for which he had already set aside funds from his Katrina surplus. Hence the bonds were not needed, and the $2.3 million per year needed to service the bonds could be better spend on salaries and new hires. CANT Met with Sheriff Newell Normand on Friday, January 16th
On Friday, January 16th Citizens Against New Taxes chairman, Margaret Baird, and vice-chairman, Margie Seemann, met with Sheriff Newell Normand and three of his associates for over two hours at the headquarters in Marrero. The meeting was cordial, although at times slightly heated, as we discussed a number of issues regarding the ¼ % sales tax and finances of the Sheriff’s office. No minds were changed. We believe that the Sheriff and his deputies do an outstanding job in keeping us safe. We are very happy that our deputies have already received a number of pay increases. In January 2005 they received a 5% raise; in April 2006 they received a raise of between 5% and 25%; and in October 2006 they received another 5% to 25% raise, in addition to longevity increases and advancement raises. Also in July 2008 their state supplemental pay increased by $1500 per year. There appears to have been a bidding war among the law enforcement agencies in this area, so some others have recently increased their salaries also. But we believe that the current salaries and benefits of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office are generally competitive with the surrounding area. This is the wrong time to raise taxes. The economy is in the tank; many homeowners have experienced large increases in their property taxes; and the Sheriff will be receiving as much as $5 million in additional revenue because he rolled forward the property tax millage without a vote of the people. At the meeting, we indicated that we are upset at the fact that the Sheriff borrowed $30 million in the form of a limited tax revenue bond in August 2008 (which he has a right to do). If this were a general obligation bond, a vote of the people would have been required. Because it was a revenue bond, no vote was required. We feel strongly that, if there had been a vote, it would have failed. We are also upset that he is using a big chunk of the roll forward money to pay for this bond. We believe that the roll forward money should be used for salaries and new hires. Since Katrina, huge amounts have already been spent or earmarked for capital projects. This $30 million bond was a bad idea. The audit for 2007-2008 is almost complete. After we obtain a copy and study its contents, we’ll have more to say. |
CANT
was in the news again, as indicated in the Times-Picayune article published on
June 26th, which I have included below. CANT was
represented at the public hearing at which the JPSO Amended (Final) Budgets for
08-09, and the Proposed Budgets for 09-10 were approved. I offered a
number of comments, and there were some testy exchanges between myself and CFO
Paul Rivera.
Jeff
Crouere, host of the WLAE-TV (Cox Channel 14) show "Ringside: Politics with a
Punch," interviewed CANT Chairman Margaret Baird and Vice-Chairman Margie
Seemann on February 11th for his TV show. The 15-minute interview was
seen on WLAE-TV on Friday, February 13th at 7:30 PM and again on
Sunday, February 15th at 10:00 PM. Among the topics discussed by the
CANT officers were the reasons they oppose the ¼-cent tax increase for the
Sheriff and some of the problems they have with the finances of the Jefferson
Parish Sheriff’s Office.