St. Mary 2009 budget includes 5 percent pay hike for employees

The St. Mary Parish Council is reviewing its 2009 fiscal year budget, which calls for $33.9 million revenues and $35.6 million in expenditures.

Once the budget is approved, St. Mary government’s coffers will dwindle from a beginning balance of $19.6 million to $17.9 million.

Included in the 2009 budget is a 5 percent, across-the-board pay raise for all parish employees.

The raise “keeps with the council’s and administration’s desire to provide competitive wages with the private sector in order to maintain a trained, experienced workforce,” Parish President Paul Naquin said.

Among the projects in the 2009 budget are:

• An access road in Morgan City from Baker Hughes to Port Road and, in Berwick, extending from Thorguson/Berwick South Road from U.S. Hwy. 90 to River Road.

• Improvements at the Burns Point Boat Launch and Campground.

• Construction of the Jesse Fontenot Memorial Boat Launch in Berwick and the Lawrence Michel Memorial Boat Launch in Morgan City in the amounts of $393,600 and $326,700, respectively.

• Although approved in the summer of 2008, construction of the $250,000 pavilion and bathroom on the fifth hole of the Atchafalaya Golf Course at Idlewild in Patterson.

• $100,000 for other, unnamed recreation improvements at Kemper Williams Park.

The budget also sheds light on the parish’s jail overcrowding problem.

“It is anticipated that … housing parish pre-trial detainees will continue to be a major expense,” Naquin said, citing projected increases in reimbursements to the City of Morgan City, the City of Patterson, and the Town of Berwick for housing detainees in their respective jails.

The parish has also been housing prisoners in its former jail, located on the seventh floor of the courthouse, since 2007.

“Due to associated increases in medical expenses for prisoners, $163,881 is transferred in from the general fund to cover the projected expenses,” Naquin said.

And the budget also includes specific funds, some earmarked for special needs, and others with no dedicated purpose as of yet:

• A gaming fund balance from the Amelia Belle in the amount of $300,000, is stamped for special, emergency allocations.

• Grant payments from the Chitimacha Tribe (Cypress Bayou Casino) include a fund balance of $122,451 for programs to combat compulsive gaming.

• The road construction and maintenance has a fund balance of $59,485.

• Wards 5 & 8 Sales Tax: This account reflects a fund balance of $452,874, which is available for budgeting within the taxing district.

• Wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 & 10 Sales Tax: This account reflects a fund balance of $200,351 and is available to be budgeted within the taxing district.

• Job Readiness Program Fund: This fund reflects a fund balance of $267,950 and is restricted for use within the program guidelines.

Projects not featured in the 2009 budget include parish and city road projects. “There are no funds available this year for the Capital Improvement Fund to help finance construction of parish and city road projects and other improvements,” Naquin said.

Also not included in the 2009 budget are funds for Phase I of the Victoria-Riverside Road in Patterson.

The parish council meets again on Nov. 12.