NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman will ask voters a second time to approve a ballot proposition that would allow the Sheriff's Office to use money from an existing property tax to pay for a series of expensive reforms at Orleans Parish Prison.
The New Orleans Advocate’s Jim Mustian reports the proposition, which Gusman estimates would generate $4.4 million a year to cover jail expenses, would not increase the current millage rate levied, but it would give the sheriff wider latitude in how he spends the proceeds.
At present, the millage is dedicated to paying off bonds for criminal justice-related construction projects. The ballot measure, if approved May 2, would allow the sheriff to use the money instead to defray the mounting cost of a federal consent decree.
