A general fund budget that will cut funding to a number of parish offices and eliminate insurance coverage for elected officials will be presented for public comment on Dec. 10.
Meeting in special session here Tuesday morning (Nov. 19), jurors considered three options, only one of which didn’t include using prior year funding to balance the budget.
In the end, jurors decided on the option that will:
— Cut funding to the district attorney, clerk of court and sheriff’s offices by 5%;
— Cut funding to the registrar of voters’ office by 7.72%;
— Cut funding to the parish administrative office by 9.37%;
— Cut funding to Emergency Management by 5.4%;
— Strip $2,000 from courthouse funding;
— Cut $416 from Veterans Administration funding; and
— Eliminate the parish portion of health insurance premiums for police jurors, justices of the peace / constables and the parish coroner and his two assistants ($257,240 in 2018).
The proposal includes a salary increase for the justices / constables from $243 a month to $600 a month (with the state supplement) and a 2% raise for about a dozen employees paid through the general fund. The latter will cost an estimated $5,200.
If adopted, the general fund will realize a deficit of $47,850, to be made up with prior year funds.
“The question is, how long can we keep doing this — using prior year funds?” asked Police Jury President David Savoy.
Melinda Leger, budgeting assistant, answered, “About two years if nothing bad happens.”
She added that the parish will “probably have to take money from prior year funds to pay bills this month and next.”
Savoy explained that “the issue” with the budget is the high cost of housing Acadia Parish inmates in out-of-parish facilities.
“It’s an issue this jury cannot control and the next jury will not be able to control,” he said, referring to the fact that seven of the parish’s eight jurors were replaced in the October elections.
“We can’t fix it. We don’t cause it. We just have to pay for it and it’s costing us an arm and a leg.”
At an earlier meeting, it was explained that the parish allocates $3.50 per day, per inmate for meals. For those inmates housed in out-of-parish facilities, the parish is forced to pay the Department of Corrections’ rate of $25.39 per inmate, per day for meals.
That has cost the parish about $250,000 since “March or April,” according to Leger.
Add to that the cost of transporting the inmates to Acadia for court appearances and “we’re looking at $800,000,” Leger told jurors.
One of the other two options considered Tuesday morning included an across -the-board 17% cut, which would have resulted in a deficit of $225,000.
The other included a 17% cut to the district attorney, clerk and sheriff and the elimination of insurance premiums for the afore-stated officials resulting in a surplus of $31,912.
District Attorney Keith Stutes told jurors that he took exception to those two proposals.
“I perceive this issue as punishment for the district attorney, the sheriff’s office and the clerk’s office — anyone that has anything to do with law enforcement and prisoners,” he said.
Savoy quickly explained that that was not the intent. “That never came out of the mouths of anyone,” he said.
“But the perception is there,” Stutes continued. “We could eliminate this issue by dismissing each and every case we have. Get rid of all the prisoners. But we’re not going to do that. We can’t do that.
“We are all in the same place. There is no one person responsible for this problem. Whatever you do you’re going to do and whatever I have to do I’m going to have to do. Services are going to be cut.”
Chance Henry, juror-elect for District 3, said he wished there had been more of a “group effort” to solve the budget shortfall.
“This is going to backfire really hard on us (new jurors),” he said.
“But whatever y’all do, we’re going to work with it.”
Kerry Kilgore, outgoing juror from District 4, said he had hoped for more of a “group effort” among elected officials when he ran for office four years ago. He did not seek re-election this year.
“I really hope you can pull everyone together in one big meeting and solve these problems,” he said. “Good luck.”
Savoy agreed, adding that such a meeting will not be easy.
“I’ll say it, there are a lot of egos to deal with,” he added. Savoy went on to say that he has received a number of phone calls regarding the budget since it was first proposed a couple of weeks ago.
“But you want to know what I never heard from anyone, not from one single person?” he asked. “I never heard one person ask me, ‘What’s good for the parish?’
“That really disappoints me and makes me almost glad that I won’t have to deal with this any more.”
Savoy added that he foresaw the budget shortfall earlier this year.
“Some people think we’re doing this for retribution (for losing the October elections), but I told Fatty (Secretary-Treasurer A.J. Broussard) six months ago that this was coming,” he said. “I told him this was going to hit us square in the face long before the elections.”
Some time was spent discussing possible alternatives to sending prisoners to out-of-parish facilities, including home arrest with ankle monitors, drug treatment mandates, building a new jail and more.
But all those cost money, Savoy pointed out.
“Unfortunately, the Louisiana mentality is that we all want services but don’t want to pay taxes for them,” Stutes said. “That may be something that’s going to have to be addressed by the new Police Jury.”
