Running out of money, north shore District Attorney Warren Montgomery seeks new sales tax (2024)

North shore District Attorney Warren Montgomery and his staff are in the middle of what might be the most critical case their office will ever have to make: arguing the need for a sales tax to fund criminal prosecutions in the face plummeting revenues.

The jury? Often tax-averse St. Tammany Parish voters.

The funding crisis for the 22nd Judicial District Attorney's Office has been building over several years, Montgomery and his top officials say.

The district, which covers St. Tammany and Washington parishes, has not seen an increase in the number of assistant district attorneys that the state will help pay for in 14 years. The pandemic resulted in fewer traffic tickets, another revenue stream. Court fines and other sources of income have been affected not only by COVID-19 shutdowns but changes in state law.

"I've not just had to let people go, people are leaving," Montgomery said. "Good people — felony prosecutors you really don't want to leave."

Staffing has dropped from 137 in 2019 to 123 today, as the office has reduced force through attrition and layoffs, letting go of three support staff members and moving two others to grant-funded jobs. Four prosecutors have left or will soon leave.

Tax defeat, budget abyss

But while the DA already had financial challenges, the declining revenue became a gaping abyss late last year when voters rejected a 4/10ths-cent sales tax to fund criminal justice costs, including the DA's office.

The defeat marked the fourth time St. Tammany voters shot down a parish-sponsored sales tax to criminal justice costs. This defeat was by the largest margin of the four tax attempts - 65% of those voting said no.

The budget adopted by the St. Tammany Parish Council for 2022 provided $3.1 million to the DA's office. That's $1.7 million less than the agency received in 2021, when Montgomery had to ask for additional funding just to keep operating. It's also $3.1 million less than what the DA had requested in the expectation that the parish tax would pass last fall.

With the parish unable to convince voters to back a criminal justice tax, Montgomery put a 1/7th-cent sale tax on the April 30 ballot. It would generate an estimated $7.9 million annually. Now, he and top staff members are making the rounds with groups like the Northshore Business Alliance and the St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce to make their pitch.

"People are just like me, I don't like taxes," Montgomery said. "I'm doing everything I can to educate them."

All of the DA's funding sources are being stressed, said Collin Sims, chief of criminal prosecutions for the office.

The DA's office gets 30 "warrants" from the state to help pay the salaries of assistant district attorneys. And while the amount of each warrant was increased in recent years from $45,000 to $50,000 -- meaning $1.5 million for the DA's office -- the number of warrants has not gone up in 14 years, despite growth in population, Sims said.

The warrants don't cover the complete cost of an assistant district attorney's salary, he said.

Another revenue stream is the 25% share that the office gets for every traffic ticket. The number of tickets dropped steeply during the pandemic, Sims said, as policing agencies faced their own COVID-related staffing issues.

The DA also gets revenue for people put in diversion programs, but that source has seen a nearly $400,000 drop since Montgomery took office in 2015, something Sims said is due to changes in the law that have changed deterrents to pleading guilty.

Overall, the office has seen a $700,000 to $800,000 revenue drop in what Sims calls "DA revenues."

Tsunami of trials

The workload, by contrast, is growing.

"We have a tsunami of felony trials at the same time funding is decreasing," Montgomery said.

The pandemic put a stop to jury trials for more than a year, leaving a higher volume of more serious and complicated cases pending trial, Sims said. At the same time, support staff has been diminished and experienced prosecutors are leaving. He said he can't afford to lose any more and pointed to cases like the prosecution of former Sheriff Jack Strain that consume huge amounts of time.

While the office is still recruiting prosecutors to replace those who've left, it's harder to hire people when they're worried about further cuts, Montgomery said.

Which brings the toughest question: what happens if the voters can't be persuaded?

Montgomery says he'll have to file suit against the parish, since by law the funding is the responsibility of parish government. The parish must also cover some costs of the Sheriff's Office and judges.

"We would have no choice but to file suit, which would precipitate suits by the Sheriff's Office and judges," Montgomery said. "It could force the parish into municipal bankruptcy," Montgomery said. "No one wants to see that happen. But that's the truth."

If it came to that, even a successful lawsuit wouldn't bring an immediate influx of money. Montgomery said that his office has made adjustments to go through the end of this year, but if the tax fails, more would be needed -- which he described as "uncomfortable" for other agencies and for the public.

A letter Montgomery sent out earlier this month was more blunt, saying that the budget cuts will mean fewer timely criminal prosecutions "and more criminals on the streets of St. Tammany Parish."