Elizabeth West/Ville Platte Gazette
The Ville Platte city council held a special meeting on June 29 to amend its 2016-2017 budget, as well as approve the city’s budget for the year beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2018.
For the 2016-17 fiscal year, the city originally anticipated revenues in the amount of $15,977,000. However, the city actually brought in $11,675,260.
Due to the fact that revenues were down for the year, the council was forced to amended the 2016-17 budget. Originally, the city anticipated spending $15,917,000, but instead it only spent $12,993,000.
After a public hearing was held, the council unanimously approved the changes to the budget for the year ending June 30, 2017.
In the budget that was adopted at the meeting for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, the city anticipates receiving $16,008,000 in revenues, while their expenses are expected to be $15,792,000. This budget was unanimously approved by the council at the special meeting.
During the council’s regular June meeting, it received more insight on the budget from Dana Quebedeaux with J.S. Dowling, Inc.
She shared that the biggest hurdle for the city to overcome when it comes to finances deal with the police department.
Quebedeaux said, “ “The original budget was $1,957,000, but the police department actually spent $2,437,000.”
The city can also expect the budget for the police department to continue to rise due to medical expense for prisoners going up 205 percent, insurance claim expenses going up 400 percent, and insurance going up 182 percent.
At its regular meeting earlier in June, the mayor said, ““This is because of the accidents that we’ve been having in conjunction with the lawsuits and the high risk of the department.”
The only way to alleviate the burden of these budget woes is to make the necessary cuts.
Vidrine said, “We’re doing everything that we can, going forward, to make the cuts where we have to cut. We’re negotiating with a lot of vendors that we presently have to see if they can go down on their prices, especially with the medical.”
The mayor then continued, “We’re not going to limit the services. It’s just a lot of the supplies we have to cut back to the bare bones.”
While the city looks into making cuts at the police department, the mayor said that people can still expect to see updates around the city.
Vidrine said, “Our new budget will still include park improvements, and street and drainage repairs.”