Parish Council passes budget cuts bill

With no discussion before the vote but a lot of hand-wringing after it, the St. Tammany Parish Council Thursday night agreed to slash the 2009 operating budget by 3 percent as recommended by Parish President Kevin Davis last month.

At the April 2 council meeting, Davis submitted a bill that amended the 2009 budget with the cuts because of the declining sales tax revenue that is used to keep the parish government operating.

The ordinance cuts the parish’s $99.1 million budget by $2.9 million because of a $5.3 million decrease in sales tax collection so far this year. This put a lot of capital projects such as roads and drainage on hold until the economy turns around and sales tax collection goes up.

However, Davis did not seem optimistic about that scenario. Near the end of the meeting, a discussion on the parish’s budget woes came up after District 14 Councilman Ken Burkhalter commented there was still a lot of blighted property in his district from Hurricane Katrina, and he wanted to know if he could get volunteers to help raze the blighted homes.

Getting volunteers to do the demolition presents many legal problems, Davis said, and getting rid of blighted property takes money, which the parish does not have.

“Those houses won’t come down soon,” Davis said. “There are no additional funds, and right now we are $5 million down.”

He added that getting rid of blighted homes is a complicated process that involves the courts and various state and federal agencies that have to give their approval before any blighted property can be razed.

Davis’ statement started a discussion on how to get more revenue to run the parish government.

Councilman Jerry Binder suggested the federal government loan the parish money to tear down the homes, then the parish could sell the land, put the money in escrow and repay the federal loans.

Davis said he has recommended that to people in Washington D.C., but he said he has yet to see a contract. At this point, Davis said, the federal government is not worried about the parish and southeast Louisiana’s recovery from Katrina.

“The people in D.C. tell me that Katrina is over,” Davis said. “I’m still waiting for $3 million in storm aid that was promised in 2005.”

Davis said if the decrease in revenue continues into July, the parish will no longer be able to fix roads, provide recreation services or even cut the grass.

He said that ironically, bids for road projects have come in low, but the parish has no money to pay for the projects, even at lower prices. Burkhalter said the people need to know how serious the economic situation is.

Councilman Marty Gould said he has been forced to be “brutally honest” with his constituents.

“I’ve had to tell them there is just no money until the economy turns around,” Gould said.

But Davis said he saw this day coming even if the economy had not turned sour.

“We just have to be creative in cutting and saving,” Davis said.

Councilman Al Hamauei said new sources of revenue have to be found and suggested bringing in experts and holding hearings on the situation.

District 4 Councilman Reid Falconer said he would like to see an examination of the process for collecting property taxes to see if a fairer allocation of that revenue could be worked out with the parish getting a bigger share.

“We have to see how it is collected and spent,” Falconer said.