Hospital district board calls for election; qualifying next week for Morgan City Council, School Board elections

As election time nears, ballots will soon start to fill out.
In St. Mary, qualifying for Morgan City mayor and council races and an open School Board seat will be July 17-19. The primary election will coincide with the presidential and congressional elections Nov. 5. The runoffs, should any be needed, will be Dec. 7.
Hospital Service District No. 2, which owns the hospital operated under lease by Ochsner Health, has also called for a Dec. 7 vote on a 9-mill tax “to assist with the renovation, repair, maintenance and preservation of our facility,” according to a statement prepared for its June meeting.
The district’s board approved the call for the tax election at its July 3 meeting. The call must be approved by the St. Mary Parish Council and the State Bond Commission.
The major uses of the money raised by the tax include:
—Resealing the building’s envelope to keep out moisture
—Replacement of the windows with ones insulated and storm-resistant
—Replacing the HVAC system of heating and air conditioning
—Renovation of patient rooms and waiting areas
—Providing scholarships for local youth to receive medical and health care career education and training to serve the community in the future.
“The citizens of the Hospital Service District 2 own the Ochsner St. Mary Facility,” said Dr. William Cefalu, the hospital district board chairman, in a press release. “Thus, we must responsibly work to ensure that our facility will be able to serve the healthcare needs of our community now and in the future.”
The board wants to be proactive in providing the best environment for health care providers and patients, the press release said.
Until 20 years ago, the hospital service district was supported by a property tax, the press release said. Louisiana has 31 hospital service districts that are comparable to St. Mary No. 2, and 87% receive tax support from their communities for their hospitals.
“Our community is one of only 4 communities in Louisiana which do not provide that support,” the press release said.
A mill is 1/10th cent of tax applied to every dollar of a property’s assessed valuation. Residential real estate is assessed on 10% of its market value as determine by the parish assessor. The first $7,500 of a home’s assessed valuation is exempt from parish property taxes.
So the 9 mills would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $22.50 a year, and the owner of a $200,000 home $112.50 a year.
The district press release said the average homeowner will pay about $45 a year.
For the Nov. 5 election — a Tuesday election — qualifying will be 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. each day in the three-day qualifying period, according to Clerk of Court Greg Aucoin.
In Morgan City, the mayor’s post, currently held by Lee Dragna, will be up for election, along with the five City Council posts now held by Lou Tamporello, Steve Domangue, the Rev. Ron Bias, Bonnie Leonard and Tim Hymel.
Leonard was appointed to fill the seat left vacant earlier this year when James Stephens resigned from the council.
A vacant seat on the School Board will be filled Nov. 5. Joseph Foulcard, who held the District 1 seat on the School Board, died in December. Guienzy Brent of Franklin was appointed to the seat on an interim basis.
Voters will pick a board member to fill the District 1 seat for the remainder of the term, which will end in January 2027.
Candidates can qualify at the Clerk of Court’s Office on the second floor of the St. Mary Parish Courthouse.
St. Mary voters will have only one U.S. House district to think about this November. The latest redistricting, ordered by the courts to create a second Black-majority district, placed all of St. Mary in the 3rd District represented by Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette.
Before the creation of the Black-majority district, extreme eastern portions of St. Mary had been in the 6th District represented by Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge.
But the new map turns Graves’ district into one with a Black majority by stretching it from Baton Rouge to the Shreveport area. Graves has announced that he won’t seek re-election.
The new alignment puts Assumption Parish into the 2nd District, represented by Troy Carter, D-New Orleans.
Nov. 5 is also presidential election day, and may put Democratic incumbent Joe Biden against Republican Donald Trump.
Or it may not. Trump has yet to be sentenced after his conviction on 34 felony counts in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial. And Biden is struggling with the fallout from his listless, stumbling debate performance June 27.
St. Mary went for Trump over Biden 64%-35% in 2020.
St. Mary voters are also likely to see property tax renewal proposals this fall for the three School Board maintenance districts. Calls for tax elections are on the agenda for Thursday’s School Board meeting.