Budget up in 2010, tops $230 million

The proposed budget for Terrebonne Parish in 2010 is $231 million and contains funding for two new positions in parish government, said Terrebonne President Michel Claudet during last week’s parish council meeting.

Claudet formally submitted the document to the council, which will hold hearings on the budget at the next regular meeting on Oct. 14.

Last year’s budget was $204 million.

Claudet said Terrebonne has been recovering from last year’s hurricanes. Sales tax revenue in the parish, which had been at record highs following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, declined in 2009, he said.

Royalty payments received for oil and gas extraction in the parish declined $9.1 million in 2009 to $54 million.

Claudet said the 2010 budget contains $3.7 million for drainage improvements, $1.24 million for construction of government buildings, $3.1 million for road and bridge projects, and $470,000 for economic development.

The number of recycling bins in Terrebonne will increase in 2010 as well.

The new position of public safety director will oversee several areas of parish government, including the Houma Police Department, Houma Fire Department, Juvenile Justice, and the Office of Emergency Preparedness. The Parish Code was amended in 2000 to create the position.

Claudet also said the position of professional legislative consultant will be created to inform parish officials about state and federal legislation affecting Terrebonne.

He said he hopes the infusion of federal stimulus money into Terrebonne will help spur growth.

Also at last week’s meeting, the parish council upheld Claudet’s veto of an ordinance allowing Houma firefighters to use parish streets to solicit money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association on two weekends yearly.

Claudet said he vetoed the ordinance because of his concern the activity would disturb traffic flow, especially with construction on the Prospect Street and Equity Street bridges soon to start.

“I support the MDA and the firefighters but there are a million other ways to earn money, such as holding golf tournaments,” he said.

Councilmen Kevin Voisin and Clayton Voisin, who both voted against the ordinance when it was introduced in August, said at the time they believed the can shakes would obstruct traffic.

“I have great respect and admiration for firefighters,” Kevin Voisin said. “It’s hard for me to say I don’t support this but it creates traffic problems.

Both councilmen said they had received calls from other organizations wanting to use parish streets to raise funds.

At the meeting, community volunteer Jan Adkins of Houma asked the council whether firefighters could solicit money for other organizations.

The council also amended its current budget to include $10 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to build affordable housing, along with more than $130 million in other federal aid for recovery from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The $10 million will be used to help fund construction of a 335-unit affordable housing complex in Gray.

Council members said although the apartment complex will be located in the northern end of Terrebonne, the CDBG funds will benefit the entire parish.

Kevin Voisin and Council Chairwoman Arlanda Williams said much of the money will fund levee and drainage improvements in the southern part of the parish.

“In the south, we have $37 million in levee projects,” Voisin said, contending that the era when police jurymen looked out only for the interests of their districts was over. He also said the movement of the parish’s population from the south to the north was voluntary.

“The federal government didn’t say, ‘We’re giving money to the south or the north,'” said Councilwoman Teri Cavalier, whose district contains the proposed housing complex. “They said we’re giving it to Terrebonne… We’re building (the complex) so people who can afford it can live there. I never thought of people living in the south or the north.”

Councilman Billy Hebert said the funds come from the federal government and that no one in Terrebonne is being taxed to build the housing complex.

Hebert said, “It’s never happened that we had this large an amount of money come to the parish.”