St. Tammany Parish employees may not get raises next year and the Safe Haven mental health campus would lose its funding under amendments to Parish President Mike Cooper’s 2026 budget proposed by Parish Council members this week.
At the same time, the council proposed adding $5 million in additional funding for road and drainage improvements and other infrastructure projects across council districts.
The amendments, part of council members’ efforts to put their stamp on Cooper’s plans to budget for an expected $180 million in revenue for next year, came during a special council meeting Monday. The budget must be adopted by the end of the year, and the amendments paved the way for council members to approve the revised budget at their Dec. 4 meeting.
Council member Cheryl Tanner, the council finance committee chair, said in an interview the revisions to the budget would “buy [the council] some time,” as it waits for more information about employee health insurance costs in the new year and looks for funding solutions for Safe Haven.
Cooper argued that 2% cost-of-living wage increases for the parish’s roughly 500 workers were needed to “help our employees have financial stability in this time of high inflation.”
The budget process, which often raises contentious issues over government spending priorities in St. Tammany, has been especially fraught in recent years because of a lack funding for criminal justice agencies in the parish’s tapped-out general fund. Cooper’s 2026 budget would cut funding for the parish’s judges, district attorney’s office and jail by 30% after voters again rejected a dedicated tax to fund those agencies.
Still, the conversation Monday touched on whether the parish could afford raises for its workers, and whether Safe Haven, which receives roughly $600,000 from the parish’s general fund to operate its campus, is worth the cost.
Cooper’s $196.8 million spending plan for 2026, in addition to relying on the $180 million in revenue, also draws on leftover funds from previous years, Council Administrator Mary Burckell said.
Cost-of-living raises
Council members said they didn’t want to approve cost-of-living increases until they know how much the parish has to pay in 2026 to cover employees’ health insurance.
The parish expects health insurance costs to go up, said Burckell, but won’t know by how much until early next year.
In his original proposal, Cooper argued employees are the parish’s “greatest asset” and has said increases are essential to attracting employees to work in parish government. He echoed that argument in a statement on Tuesday.
But Tanner said they did not want to give employees cost-of-living increases now, only to have to take them away in a few months when health insurance costs go up. The parish covers 100% of employees’ health insurance.
Budget cuts to Safe Haven
Safe Haven, the parish hub for health services owned by the parish that once earned the praise of Gov. John Bel Edwards, also came under scrutiny. Tanner proposed ending the parish’s funding of the campus whose tenants include St. Tammany Public Schools, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Florida Parishes Human Services Authority.
Tanner said she did not want to shut down Safe Haven, but said the parish’s general fund cannot currently afford to cover it. She noted Safe Haven still has some cash on hand from rent and leftover money from the parish’s public health millage, which voters declined to renew in 2023.
It’s not clear how the loss of some $600,000 would impact Safe Haven’s operations.
Meanwhile, the parish council also approved $5.2 million in additional drainage and road projects in all of the parish’s 14 council districts, except district 2 and district 4, whose council members said their requested projects had already been funded.
Spat over administrative positions
Council member Arthur Laughlin also proposed another series of cuts targeting some of the positions in Cooper’s office, including a deputy Chief Administrative Officer, the parish’s coastal manager Randy Pausina, a position in Cooper’s office and a vacancy in the utilities department.
Laughlin said in an interview he thought the positions were redundant and the parish government should find opportunities for cuts just as the criminal justice agencies have had to.
Cooper, meanwhile, said he was “surprised” last week when he learned of Laughlin’s amendment. He said the positions were “sorely needed,” arguing that Pausina, for instance, “more than paid for his salary” in the work he did administering major projects on the parish’s lakeshore.
Annie Perkins, the parish’s finance director, said the cuts would save only around $1,900 in money from the cash-strapped general fund, since the positions are covered by other funds.
A majority of the council ultimately voted against including the proposed amendment.
