St. Tammany Mosquito Lawsuit Dropped, DA Bill Withdrawn

Two Separate Fights Over Parish Funding And Oversight Have Shifted Since Late 2025

A legal and political fight over public funding in St. Tammany Parish has changed course in recent months, with the St. Tammany Parish Mosquito Abatement District dropping its lawsuit against the Parish Council and a separate bill tied to the district attorney’s budget being pulled from the Louisiana House.

The mosquito district announced Dec. 11, 2025, that its board had withdrawn a lawsuit it filed against the St. Tammany Parish Council a month earlier. District officials said the suit was no longer needed after the council decided to end its Government Efficiency Committee investigation into the agency.

In its public statement, the district said it had already taken several cost-cutting steps, including adopting a 2026 budget that it said reduced operating costs by 5% from the prior year, approving a one-time millage reduction, and identifying assets for sale. The district also said it wanted to move past the dispute and return its focus to mosquito control and public health work across the parish.

That lawsuit was one piece of a broader argument over how St. Tammany should fund public agencies and who should control those dollars. During the 2026 legislative session, Rep. Kim Carver filed House Bill 641, which proposed changes affecting assistant district attorney salaries and the operating budget of the district attorney’s office in the 22nd Judicial District, which includes St. Tammany and Washington parishes.

According to the bill digest, the measure would have required the parishes in the judicial district to budget enough money each year to cover assistant district attorney salaries and certain operating costs of the DA’s office. The proposal also would have limited reductions to parts of that budget without the district attorney’s consent.

But the bill did not advance. Louisiana legislative records show HB641 was discharged from committee and withdrawn from the files of the House on April 21.

Meanwhile, a separate measure involving the mosquito district did move forward. House Bill 286 by Rep. Stephanie Berault repeals R.S. 33:7728, the state statute that had given the district’s board sole authority over how district funds are spent and included other provisions related to the district’s powers. Legislative records show that bill passed both chambers and was sent to the governor on May 8.

Taken together, the developments show that the underlying debate over oversight, taxing authority and local control in St. Tammany is not fully settled, even as one lawsuit has ended and one bill has been shelved.

Why This Matters In Slidell

For Slidell residents, this matters on two fronts: mosquito control and public safety funding. The mosquito district is based in Slidell and provides parishwide treatment and surveillance services tied to nuisance mosquito control and disease monitoring. At the same time, any changes to the 22nd Judicial District Attorney’s budget structure could affect how parish leaders balance funding priorities that touch prosecutions, staffing and broader criminal justice operations.

Both issues also connect to a larger question that regularly affects Slidell taxpayers: how much local agencies should raise and spend, and how much control parish government should have over independently funded entities.