Why I voted against the Law Enforcement District tax renewal, and why you should too!

Initially the audit report submitted by the sheriff office shows that it had three and a half million dollars in “other expenditures” from the correctional center.

This Clown sheriff did not even have the wherewithal to itemize these “other expenditures.” Obviously, he believes that the people of Catahoula Parish are so stupid that they would not notice. Put simply I believe that this money was stolen from the sheriff office and thus stolen from us the people of Catahoula Parish. The only reason you would conceal such a large amount of money as “other expenditures” is to hide something. So, what is he hiding? Why doesn’t the Clown come clean on the deficit for 23-24 and what these “other expenditures” really are?

That is not the only reason I voted “No.”  Property taxation is a fundamentally unfair form of taxation. Property taxes are unfair and should be opposed for several reasons. First and foremost, property taxes penalize ownership. Unlike other forms of taxation based on income or consumption, property taxes are levied simply because a person owns something—regardless of their ability to pay. This means that even if someone has fully paid off their home and lives on a fixed or limited income, they are still subject to recurring tax bills that can increase over time. Especially if they are not homestead exempt. In essence, people never truly “own” their property—they merely rent it from the government in perpetuity.

Secondly, property taxes can disproportionately burden vulnerable populations such as the elderly, low-income families, and those on fixed incomes. These individuals may have limited cash flow and can struggle to keep up with rising assessments and tax rates or the rent payments that must be increased by landowners to cover the cost of this taxation. In the worst cases, failure to pay property taxes can result in the loss of one’s home, which is a harsh and excessive consequence for people who are not otherwise financially irresponsible.

Furthermore, the property tax system is often inconsistent and lacks transparency. Assessments can be arbitrary or inaccurate, leading to unfair tax burdens on some properties while others are under-assessed. This introduces inequality and a lack of trust in the fairness of the system.

Most importantly for our parish, property taxes can discourage property ownership and long-term investment in the community. Knowing that increasing the value of one’s property—by improving or maintaining it—can lead to higher tax bills creates a disincentive for responsible ownership and investment in the parish. This equally applies to businesses who are trying to function in Catahoula Parish under the burden of an excessive tax liability. Catahoula parish is already one of the most heavily taxed parishes in the State of Louisiana and yet they are closing our schools, the roads are in terrible shape, people are leaving and moving out of the parish, and a business cannot stay open because of the high sales tax and lack of population.

But, back to the Clown sheriff, and why you should vote no to his tax renewal. Toney Edwards as sheriff has wasted what limited resources the sheriff office has on useless and needless junk. Initially he bought the correctional center that was at the time of the sale a failing business. He paid 12 million dollars for a failing business. That’s right 12 million for a money pit. Basically, he overpaid for this correctional center and has since its purchase had multiple murders in the prison to the point that it is know as “Stabahoula.” You can read the other post on this blog to get a better view of the problems with the correctional center. Also, this business has multiple lawsuits against it for sexual harassment and retaliatory firing by employees. There have been multiple incidences of illegal drugs being brought into the prison by employees and even employees selling knives to inmates.

Suffice to say this was at its best a bad deal for the sheriff office and the people of Catahoula. But a good deal for the sheriff friends and for the sheriff, who have the phone, food, and commissary contracts with the prison and making money off both the inmates families and the Catahoula Parish taxpayers. The Clown has staffed this prison with people who lack serious correctional experience and has few if any actual POST certified correctional officer. He has more than once had convicted drug felons employed as correctional officers in the facility and has also employed people as correctional officers charged with serious felony sex crimes. He has facilitated convicted felons to possess firearms in the course and scope of being these correctional officer with no concern for the consequences. The place has no heating system, has repeatedly fed inmates rotten food, there is no health care staff at the facility, because no one with any education as a nurse or doctor will work there for more than a few days. If you use google map to look at the facility from the air, you will see it’s a garbage dump outside of the facility where the prison has just been dumping garbage on the site.

I can go on and on, but the bottom line is the place is a cesspool of drugs and violent crime, turning into a dump site destroying the local environment, and is bleeding money to the tune of millions of dollars a year from the taxpayers.

If this Clown cannot make the prison financially solvent, he needs to shut the place down. But he won’t! he makes too much on his kickbacks from his prison business buddies. And most certainly he will not shut it down as long as you the people continue to vote in his tax renewal. Giving him this renewal will just continue and encourage the Clown’s mismanagement, malfeasance, and his bleeding the sheriff’s office of money. Don’t believe that this deficit is something that he can handle and take care of. Because he will not!

Toney Edwards has used this prison as his personal cash cow and used moneys allocated to the prison for his personal benefit and the benefit of his cronies. This Clown has spent prison money to build himself not one, but two, in ground storm shelters to protect him and his family from tornadoes. This cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars for these useless storm shelters that to this day are sitting at the correctional center. The reason they were not put in the ground is it was revealed by whistleblowers, he then fired, and the completed in ground shelters were moved from Toney Edward’s home back to the correctional center where they were originally built by inmate labor. Best guess where they are today? probably in the ground at the sheriff’s house.

But for the revelation of the storm shelters, no one would have known, and this Clown would have personally benefited from the people’s resources. This Clown uses inmate labor to benefit and improve his property, the property of his supporters, and other elected officials. All in direct violation of Louisiana’s ethics laws.

It is well known that the Sheriff office refuses to timely pay its bills and is on a cash only basis with several local businesses. It just goes on and on the mismanagement of finances and rotten leadership. It needs to stop.

This Clown has given away property that was paid for by the people’s tax money for no justifiable reason, He has purchased a building for his office in violation of state law and overpaid for it. He has bought machine guns for his deputies and they used those unnecessary weapons of war to kill at least one person this year, without so much as even a shooting investigation. Will your family be the next victim of these machine guns in the hands of uncertified deputies? Very few of his deputies are actually POST certified (which is required by law) and at least one was kicked out of the police academy for racist comments he made to a child. This is all clearly caused by the failed leadership of the sheriff himself. So, for these reasons and more I voted “No” to his tax renewal. You should too!

In conclusion, this property tax renewal is an outdated and unjust form of taxation that unfairly target homeowners and business owners, threaten financial stability, and increases cost of everyone in this parish. It is the last thing Catahoula Parish needs, and its renewal will only further the decay of Catahoula Parish, reward the failures in the sheriff and enrich the pocketbook of this corrupt community leader. Vote “NO” to this tax renewal.

The only reason this renewal was put as a special election is that the Clown sheriff hopes you won’t go and vote. This tax renewal has an outrageously high millage for a property tax, exceeding three times all the other millage property taxes in Catahoula parish. Why is it necessary to give more to Toney Edwards in property taxes than to the school system in Catahoula Parish? What is more important the education of the children of this parish or the Clown sheriff’s cronyism? This tax election is just adding further insult to injury to the people of Catahoula Parish. The parish has to pay for this special election. If the Clown would have put it on a regular election the people of Catahoula parish would not have had to pay for the special election. But then the turnout would have been higher and that’s exactly what the Clown sheriff doesn’t want. He doesn’t want you to go vote, he wants you to be complacent and disinterested so he can get this by unnoticed; just like he’s done with his deficit spending, his misuse of public monies, the bribes, the kickbacks, and let’s not forget those dirty little Snapchat pictures.

You can early vote at the register of voter’s office in the Harrisonburg Courthouse until Saturday, April 26, 2025. Election day is May 3, 2025, where you can vote at your local voting precinct.

To find your particular voter information online click here

Just remember that failure to vote is the same as saying you are fine with Toney Edwards and his political corruption and don’t care about the future of Catahoula Parish, so go vote, AND VOTE NO to this tax renewal!