Vital St. John services get renewal for 10 years

By MOLLY DRYMAN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – All four items on the St. John the Baptist Parish ballot passed at Saturday’s election, renewing the existing 10-year property tax millages, which pay for parish services.

St. John Parish Director of Finance Jeff Clement said all of the items will be good for the next 10 years.

&#8220There was one item that was set to expire this year, so it will be up for renewal again around 2015,” Clement said. &#8220The other three do not expire until 2007, so they will not be up for renewal until around 2017.”

The four renewals were for 1.01 mills, which funds operation of the Parish Jail Courthouse and office buildings. This generates around $188,000 per year to maintain parish buildings, including utilities, maintenance and repairs, 4.86 mills, which funds street lights and lighting projects. This generates around $900,000 per year to pay for all the street lights in the parish, including maintenance and employees.

Another was for .97 mills, which funds operation of the parish health units. This generates about $180,000 per year and helps maintain and to staff the parish health units, and the last item was for 10 mills, which funds the operations of St. John Parish Libraries. This mill generates around $1.8 million to run and maintain all the libraries in the parish, including genealogy services, meeting rooms and special programs for children.

The item for 1.01 mills passed with 69.41 percent out of 1435 votes, the item for 4.86 mills passed with 68.20 percent out of 1434 votes, the item for .97 mills passed with 69.71 percent out of 1426 votes and the last item for 10 mills passed with 69.34 percent out of 1419 votes, according to the St. John Parish Clerk of Court.