I've been trying to find an ulterior motive for Lawrence Chehardy's announcement he'll resign at the beginning of next year. In spite of all the investigations, rumblings, and resignations in Jefferson Parish government, rising all the way up to the top, Mad Aaron Broussard, Chehardy appears to be totally off the radar of USA Letten.
Da Paper's Drew Broach waxes poetic about Chehardy the chess-master, analyzing the political ramifications of his departure:
And yet Chehardy is a proud man. If he really wants to get beyond the stigma of having inherited his office, and the suspicion that he's plotting to bequeath it to an heir, he won't appoint Capella or any other high-profile politician as acting assessor. Instead, he will appoint a professional real estate appraiser as caretaker for three months, with a public vow that this person will not run on the April 2 ballot.
Or here's an even wilder idea: Between now and Jan. 1, Chehardy appoints himself chief deputy assessor. Then he remains as acting assessor until voters chose his successor on April 2. It's not pristine, but it helps him avoid the handoff stigma and be remembered as a champion of democracy.
Broach has become captive to the cult of personality that many political reporters fall into, and bases all his speculation on the notion that Chehardy's career has been one of success and good for Jefferson Parish. He believes that Chehardy has something to bequeath to a successor. In reality, what Chehardy leaves behind for his successor is a huge fiscal and political mess. Chehardy's opposition to property taxes forces the parish to rely on sales taxes, and that's becoming a serious problem:
Meanwhile, [JPSO CFO] Rivera said, revenues are stagnant. Sales tax receipts and commissions, which soared in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, have been slowly sliding back to pre-storm levels. Last year, the Sheriff's Office took in $18.6 million in sales tax revenue, the same amount collected in 2004-05, before Katrina. Rivera projects a 2 percent drop in sales tax to $18.2 million in the new year.
"For the last two months in a row, we've been even," he said. "We've bottomed out. That's the hope."
Video poker receipts are down, and motor vehicle taxes have hit their lowest levels in 30 years, he said.
Property tax revenue is expected to increase 2 percent, to $27.4 million. But Rivera called it a wash considering the other declines.
Jefferson Parish has changed dramatically in the years since "Big Lawrence" Chehardy pulled withdrew his qualification papers a few minutes before the deadline for the 1975 election cycle, leaving his 22-year old son as the only candidate in the race. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, new housing construction was booming, and the Archdiocese of New Orleans was building an education infrastructure in direct competition to public schools in several parishes. "White flight" families in Jefferson didn't want high property taxes because they were paying tuition to those Catholic schools, and the Chehardys were there to see they didn't. The current assessor has raised opposition to taxation to a form of zen:
Every time legislators in Baton Rouge reopen their perennial debate about raising Louisiana's homestead exemption, Jefferson Parish Assessor Lawrence E. Chehardy is sure to be there, as he was during the 2009 legislative session when he spoke at committee meetings and even spent his own campaign money on advertisements pushing to shield a larger share of residential property value from taxation.
Whenever a government body in Jefferson Parish proposes a property tax increase, Chehardy will likely emerge to snuff the idea, as he did last year when Kenner Mayor Ed Muniz and the Jefferson Parish School Board called for higher millages.
Any time the School Board, the Sheriff's Office or any other Jefferson Parish agency engages in the practice of restoring its property tax rate to collect more money from rising real estate values -- opting against keeping the rate lower and collecting the same amount -- Chehardy can be counted on to respond, customarily issuing statements panning the decisions.
This position is all fine and dandy if a) you don't use public schools and b) when the crime rate doesn't require increases in law enforcement expenditures. Neither of these conditions exist any longer in Jefferson Parish, so Chehardy's bailing.
In terms of education, more and more Jefferson Parish parents are rejecting their neighborhood Catholic elementary school in favor of better-quality Catholic schools in New Orleans or "magnet" public schools. Parents under 40 are quite the different generation than their parents. Many see value in giving their children the best educational opportunities available, even if that means the child might have to sit next to a black or brown kid. The sense of urgency of religion classes is less and less since Catholic schools no longer are staffed by priests, brothers, and nuns. Putting your child into the hands of the religious reactionary who lives three streets over for six or seven years just doesn't make sense to them.
On the law enforcement front, Metairie would be the third largest city in Louisiana if it was incorporated (behind New Orleans and Baton Rouge). The mission of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has changed radically since the days when Harry Lee would say his main job was to keep blacks in rinky-dink cars out of the parish. Particularly since the storm, the racial/ethnic makeup of the parish has shifted, fully establishing the need for a well-trained urban police department, not merely a bunch of guys indebted to the sheriff to the point they spend a significant amount of time fund raising for him.
At a time when parish residents demand more from public education and law enforcement, the government agencies charged with providing these services are running out of money. Both the School Board and JPSO announced major cutbacks for the coming fiscal year.
The tax base Chehardy bequeathed on the parish is either static or shrinking. Voters won't agree to further increases in the sales tax. At 8.75% (aggregate, state and local), it's already too high for such a regressive tax. The homestead exemption at $75,000 makes it next to impossible to establish a property tax base that other states use for funding public education. Increasing millage rates on property valued above the homestead exemption (as well as commercial property) can only go so far.
A sea change is coming to Jefferson Parish, one that will reveal Chehardy's policies and positions to be self-serving and not in the best interests of the people who regularly re-elected him without opposition. When people can't find decent public schools for their kids, they're going to want an explanation. Chehardy wants that to come from someone else while he spends time with his family.
Of course, there's still the possibility that USA Letten and his FBI investigators have something on Chehardy and he'll be joining Mad Aaron in Club Fed. This is Jefferson Parish we're talking about, after all.
