Two heavy weight candidates for parish president in St. Tammany Parish faced off for the first time in a forum hosted by the St Tammany Chamber of Commerce yesterday.
Incumbent Mike Cooper talked about progress made during his first term to improve St. Tammany’s infrastructure, which he said has been under strain due to the parish’s consistent population growth.
Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer spoke about drama between Cooper’s administration and the parish council, and pledged to mend relationships.
Much of the conversation dealt with a continuing financial crisis stemming from the parish’s loss of more than $20 million in criminal justice funding when voters turned down a sales tax in 2016 that covered state-mandated criminal justice costs. The parish government’s allotment to the agencies it must financially cover was $6 million less than those agencies had requested for this budget year. For the 2024 budget cycle, that deficit is expected to climb to at least $13 million, according to the Parish Council.
Other topics included questions about how friendly each candidate would be to businesses and property developers.
The chamber said a recording of the forum will soon be on their Youtube channel.
