District Attorney Hillar Moore Proposes 4 Mil Property Tax to Fund Prosecution

Voters in the City of St. George and throughout East Baton Rouge Parish will face a new proposed tax on the ballot on Saturday, May 3.

District Attorney Hillar Moore is a proposing a 4-mil property tax to fund the operations of his office. Moore described his current funding situation as a crisis, due to a chronic lack of funding for prosecutors and other staff and expenses. 

In a speech to 

the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish on Tuesday, April 22, Moore said his office faces a backlog of cases including:

• 229 murder cases

• 207 rape cases

• 3,611 gun related cases

• 293 drug related cases

• 895 theft cases

The District Attorney said his office is severely underfunded compared to other major cities in Louisiana.  His current budget is $16 million a year.  

Moore said his office has 50 assistant district attorneys in a parish with 105 murders a year. He compared that to Jefferson Parish, which has 75 assistant DA’s in a parish with 18 murders a year. The DA’s budget in Jefferson is $24 million a year.

He said he has been losing experienced prosecutors at an alarming rate, in part because of low pay and his office’s inability to offer competitive pay scales and normal annual raises.  The stress of the job also is a contributing factor, he said.

He emphasized that criminals won’t go to prison unless they are prosecuted.

PROPOSITION ON MAY 3 BALLOT

 “Shall the 19th Judicial Enforcement District of the Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana (the “District”) be authorized to levy and collect a tax of four (4) mils on all the property subject to taxation in the District (an estimated $24,400,000 reasonably expected at this time to be collected from the levy of the Tax for an entire year) (the “Tax”), for a period of twenty (20) years, beginning with the year 2025 and ending with the year 2044, in accordance with Louisiana law, with the proceeds of the Tax (after paying reasonable and necessary costs and expenses of collecting and administering the Tax) to be dedicated and used for the purpose of providing funding for the office of the District Attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish?”