Randolph: 2010 revenue projections down

Though the 2010 Lafourche Parish Government budget approval is weeks away, Parish President Charlotte Randolph anticipates that the budget will generate less money for the parish.

“We’ll have to provide the basic services we are charged with providing in 2010,” Randolph explained to the council at last week’s regularly scheduled council meeting.

The Lafourche Parish Council is looking to adopt its 2010 budget on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at its regularly scheduled council meeting.

Prior to the adoption, the council will have two open forums for residents to voice concerns about upcoming budget expenditures. The first meeting will be on Monday, Nov. 9, at 5 p.m. The second meeting will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 5 p.m., prior to the regularly scheduled council meeting.

Both meetings will be in the parish government complex inside the old Wal-Mart in Mathews (4876 La. Highway 1).

Randolph said royalty revenue for 2009 was one of the major factors in the 2010 shortfall.

“Our royalty funds have been reduced drastically,” she said.

According to the Finance Department, September royalty payments totaled $227,000, down $551,000 from August. The sales tax revenue was also down three to five percent for September.

The shortfalls forced Lafourche to eliminate overtime for its employees and curtail any new equipment purchases until the end of the year.

“We’ve been fortunate this year and in the past that we have been able to purchase new equipment for the Department of Public Works so that our employees are able to perform their tasks with dependable machinery,” Randolph explained. “But we have to hold off on buying any new equipment until we balance our budget at the end of the year.”

“We also had allocated funding for overtime, but with the royalties reduction, we have to eliminate it so that we can balance our budget by the end of the year.”

However, even with budget reductions, Randolph told the council that she intends to maintain her full staff and work toward building a $50 million correctional facility in the parish.

“This coming year will be a year that will require a lot of communication and a lot of consideration to make it work,” she said.