NEWSMAKERS
January 27, 2016
Longtime Vandebilt coach passes away
January 27, 2016
Lafourche Parish is under new leadership as the parish faces uncertainty amid state and local fiscal problems this upcoming year.
The parish welcomed a new parish president in Jimmy Cantrelle. He defeated three-term incumbent Charlotte Randolph in a November run-off election. Lafourche also has five new council members with a sixth on the way after District 5 incumbent John Arnold withdrew from the March 5 special election.
Cantrelle said he has spent his first few weeks in office building his administration. On Jan. 12, the parish council approved his appointments for three department head positions. The council was set to vote on Tuesday for approval of Doug Cheramie as the communication director for the parish government.
The new parish president said that he has had to take on responsibilities of department heads that were not in place yet. Cantrelle did not provide specifics about the projects he has planned for the next year, saying the administrative demands have kept his attention.
“I’ve got a lot of things that I want to do. But so far, I didn’t have the chance to even begin tackling that because I was doing so many other things that I should have had department heads doing. You can only divide yourself so much,” he said.
District 8 council member Jerry LaFont is one of the veterans of the Lafourche Parish Council that kept his seat amid the turnover. LaFont is serving as the chairman of the council again after spending 2015 in the same capacity. He said that the main project he is focused on is improving drainage in his district.
“In my district, the main thing is I’m trying to get a project that’s going to get better drainage for the east side of Bayou Lafourche, in the Cut Off/Larose area,” LaFont said.
While Lafourche leaders have some projects they do want to eventually work on in 2016, the bigger issue looms with the budget in 2017. The sagging oil and gas industry is holding back Lafourche’s economy, thus affecting the parish’s sales tax revenues.
At the same time, the parish’s current budget structure is at risk of receiving a major hit due to the state’s budget crisis. Representatives in Baton Rouge are tasked with addressing a $1.9 billion deficit next fiscal year, which begins on July 1. The budget issues have state officials scrambling to bridge the gap, and one option on the table is repealing the watercraft tax credit.
As it currently stands, parishes assess taxes on owners of boats and watercraft. The parish collects the money, and the state reimburses the owners, thus covering the cost. Lafourche, with a massive hub of offshore activity in Port Fourchon, gets a large amount of its revenue from that vessel tax. If that credit was to go away, companies who keep their boats docked at Fourchon could be convinced to move the boats to somewhere else to save money.
Cantrelle said the sluggish oil economy and the sword of the vessel tax hanging over the parish’s head will challenge Lafourche, but he summoned the ghosts of the 1980s downturn to provide a message of hope.
“A couple of things that I feel is going to set us back is going to be the price of oil and the vessel tax credit. But I have overcome the 80s, and we’ll overcome that if we all work together,” he said.
LaFont said the 2016 budget is safe from the budget deliberations in Baton Rouge, but also mentioned just how vital the watercraft tax is to the parish.
“This year’s budget won’t be affected by that. I’d have to see next year, but I’m sure it’s going to affect us pretty significantly, especially with the watercraft tied up, which makes up, I think, 47 percent of our budget this year,” he said.
LaFont also addressed calls to diversify Lafourche’s economy. While more diversification would protect the parish from future downturns when oil prices tumble, Lafourche will not be able to bring in new kinds of jobs overnight, according to LaFont. He said that people at the state and national level should instead focus on choosing leaders who want to support the oil industry fully.
“We’re a southern parish; we depend on the oilfield. I don’t think you’ll change that anytime soon. Price of sugar cane is not high enough to make that much of an economic value,” he said. “Sure, we can look at other ways to bring in new industry, but in southern Louisiana it’s all about the oilfield, whether we want to believe it or not.” •
