Racino dough smells good to Council

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Beset by budget woes, some members of the St. Landry Parish Council want to take a second look at how the money from Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino is split.
The parish receives about $2.7 million before it is divided across 11 entities.
The so-called racino money came up as the Parish Council’s Administrative and Finance Committee met Wednesday in Opelousas to hear an often stated story of parish government revenues falling behind ever expanding needs.
Earlier this year, Parish Council President Bill Fontenot announced a company would be contracted to spray grass along parish roads rather than cutting it.
The parish doesn’t have the equipment or manpower to cut the grass, he said.
The parish trimmed 17 employees from its payroll this year. There may be as few as nine people working on road and drainage issues.
An accounting of the work numbers is asked for at the next meeting on Sept. 19.
In a budget presentation, Amanda Cain, finance director, said the parish airport in Opelousas is in the red by $20,087.
Fontenot blamed fuel sales and uncollected hangar rental fees for the deficit.
Cain said an attempt to save $300,000 this year in a contingency fund is not happening because expenses outpace revenues.
Forty-five percent of parish government’s budget is mandated expenses from other parishes offices.
Expenses such as utilities take another bite out of the budget, she said.
“I probably have control over $200,000,” she said. “How am I to balance the budget? How am I supposed to cut with only just a little tiny piece of the pie? Its’ difficult,” she said.
Some of the blame is placed on soaring jail expenses.
Councilman Harold Taylor said, “Something happened late July, first of August.”
The “something” is the parish, which is limited to holding 232 inmates, sent 39 inmates out the parish, he said. A inmate held in the parish costs $14.72 a day while the cost outside the parish is $24.37 a day, he said.
Parish government had budgeted $60,000 for out-of-parish inmate costs, but current spending may drive that to $500,000, he said.
There are remedies such as increasing the booking charged inmates from $14.50 to $25, which covers the actual cost of toiletries, bedding and the like, he said.
The sheriff’s office paid Opelousas $300,000 to run a jail, but that city has closed its jail. “That would be an easy take, I would think, since they don’t run the jail any more they shouldn’t have the $300,000 expense,” Taylor said.
Amid the jail expense talk, Wayne Ardoin, committee chairman, said time may have come to unlock the split on the racino money.
“We did some things wrong when we let everybody get a piece of the cash cow over there, which is known as Evangeline Downs and the video poker, which is in St. Landry Parish,” he said.
“We can’t cut grass, don’t have tractors... we are the ones that are suffering,” he said noting other parish offices are “all doing fine.”
Ardoin said, “When grass is growing taller than the stop signs, we’ve got a problem.”
Councilman Timmy Lejeune said the racino money “...was divided by the council, so it can be changed by the council”
LeJeune added, “We are in trouble people. We are in serious trouble ... We have to do something. We have no money left. It’s no secret.”
The current racino split is:
— Parish government, 55 percent;
— St. Landry Parish Airport, 1.5 percent;
— Coroner, 1.5 percent;
— Economic development, 5 percent;
— District attorney, 3.5 percent;
— Registrar of voters, 1.5 percent;
— Opelousas City Police Department, 6 percent;
— St. Landry Parish Municipal Association, 21 percent;
— St. Landry Parish Judicial System, 2 percent;
— St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court, 1.5 percent; and
— St. Landry Parish Assessor’s Office, 1.5 percent.
The Parish Council also takes 4 percent for an administrative fee.