Parish Council to be asked to OK a line of credit

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By Harlan Kirgan
Editor
The St. Landry Parish Council will be asked Wednesday to approve a $1.5 million line of credit with Washington State Bank.
Parish President Bill Fontenot said the credit line will be used to even out the finances between departments and avoid asking vendors to wait on payments until after tax payments arrive.
“We are used to borrowing from one account to the other,” Fontenot said. “Actually we are borrowing from ourselves in managing our budget to get to the end of the year.”
The parish receives about $4.9 million in property taxes, which are due by the end of year.
“But in order to make our budget make it to the end of the year we had to borrow from accounts and also at times it got so difficult to meet payroll and all that some vendors were paid late,” he said.
Fontenot said he noticed the practice of shuffling money in accounts and making vendors accept late payments in his first years in office.
“I was not comfortable with that type of management of our business,” he said.
“To me that was balancing our budget or making budget on the back of our vendors,” Fontenot said. “I don’t think it is proper. It is legal.”
If the Council agrees to the line of credit, the parish will next go to the state Bond Commission for approval.
“I understand the bond commission sees many of these every year,” he said.
The parish does not intend to use the full $1.5 million, he said.
St. Landry Parish Government revenues total $22.1 million. The top two revenue sources in 2016 were $4.9 million in property taxes and $6.5 million in sales tax.
The sale tax revenue is dedicated to the Smooth Ride Home Program, which will pave about 300 miles of road by end of this year. The 15-year program passed in 2013 is funded by a 2 percent sales tax collected in rural St. Landry Parish.
But that sales tax money is dedicated to the Smooth Ride Home Program.
The Parish Council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Old City Market, 131 W. Bellevue St., Opelousas.