Jefferson voters will consider millages to upgrade water and sewerage

Nestled up against Jefferson Highway, just east of the Huey P. Long bridge, Jefferson Parish’s first water treatment plant has been pumping, filtering and cleaning river water since 1931.

But its days could be numbered. Parish officials want to tear down the oldest parts of that plant and build a new one similar to one they built nearby in the 1960s, which handles more water and uses better filtration systems. Other projects, such as installing smart meters around the parish and upgrading other infrastructure, are also on the parish’s wish list. 

Those projects would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, so parish officials are keen to have Jefferson voters approve a water infrastructure millage on the ballot March 20. A similar millage that funds operations in the sewerage department will also go before voters that day. Both taxes are for 10-year terms.

Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng has referred to both propositions as “continuations” of taxes that have been in place for 30 years, but there is one key change: On March 20, voters are being asked to approve the millages up to their original maximums of five mills each.

Eight years, ago, the last time these taxes were on the ballot, voters rejected 5-mill proposals. Parish officials hurriedly got them back on a fall ballot later that year at reduced amounts, around 3.5 mills, and they were approved.

Both are collected at around 3.3 mills today. 

If voters approve them this time, Lee Sheng could ask the council, which sets property tax rates, to levy the full 5 mills. But a spokesperson insisted Lee Sheng had no plans to do that at the moment.

“We know we need more resources but we have started conversations with councilmembers on what the next step will be,” Gretchen Hirt said. In the meantime, Lee Sheng and her administration are imploring voters to consider what could happen if the millages go away.

“Without the millage, we will see more and more breaks throughout the parish on a daily basis,” Parish Water Department Director Sidney Bazley said a video produced by the parish. 

A walk through the oldest section of the east bank water treatment plant harkens back to an earlier age. Water filters through sand in giant rough concrete basins. Long-abandoned monitoring stations — the entire treatment plant is run by just four people nowadays, though there is additional staff for maintenance — dot walkways above the basins. At the end of a hallway, a derelict wall of dials shows where readings used to be recorded on paper in case state inspectors stopped by. 

A few hundred yards away, one of the four operators sits in the newer plant, built in the 1960s. A bank of monitors tracks everything going on, from pump activity to how many million gallons of water are in the east bank’s two water towers.

If a homeowner has a homestead exemption, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay $12.50. The owner of a $200,000 house with a homestead exemption would pay $62.50 and a $300,000 home would pay $112.50.

At 5 mills, the water millage would bring in about $18.3 million per year. Voters in unincorporated Jefferson and the towns of Kenner, Harahan, Lafitte and Grand Isle as well as the Timberlane subdivision in Gretna will be able to vote on the millage as well.

The current sewerage millage makes up about a quarter of the the Sewerage Department’s budget, which is used to respond to calls, perform needed maintenance and pay staff. If levied at 5 mills, it would bring in around $15 million per year from voters in unincorporated Jefferson, the Town of Jean Lafitte and the Timberlane section of Gretna.

If voters reject the millage, sales tax funds that are currently used to fund repairs and upgrades to the sewerage system would have to be redirected toward department operations, said Mark Drewes, the parish’s Public Works director. Loss of the millage…