Jeff must move beyond 'no new taxes'

Just about everyone wants good schools and safe neighborhoods, but hardly anyone wants to pay for them.

That's the message that Jefferson Parish residents have delivered to their political leaders this year. Both the Parish Council, on behalf of the Sheriff's Office, and the School Board have backed off scheduling referendums to raise taxes. For the time being, at least.

Amid the pushback, what is missing is a vigorous and comprehensive public debate on Jefferson Parish's societal values and what it really wants to be, if 450,000 can be said collectively to "want" anything at all. The answer might make a good case for raising taxes, or it might not, but unfortunately this sort of discussion is not taking place at all around the dinner table.

Instead, all we get is a chorus of "no new taxes."

The backdrop for this, in addition to the national recession, is the 2008 property tax bills that hit mailboxes last December. The average assessment was up 29 percent since 2009, the value of the average single-family home up 43 percent.

Thus tax bills went through the roof. Tales of $778 bills on houses previously charged $30 were not uncommon.

At the same time, political and business leaders were putting together a proposal to increase Jefferson's sales tax by a quarter cent, in hopes of raising $17.5 million a year to fight crime and blight. The Sheriff's Office was losing experienced deputies to other jobs and struggling to fill vacancies.

Does the Sheriff's Office really need more money? On the one hand, crime is actually declining. On the other, Sheriff's Office staffing levels are far below the national average.

The sales tax referendum was cancelled in February, ostensibly because the ballot language wasn't quite right. Since then, however, two referendum opportunities have come and gone. Those involved with the effort now say they're waiting for the national economy to rebound, and that they will revisit the idea in early 2010....