Council OKs city budget

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, October 18, 2017

New Iberia City Council members approved the city’s 2018 fiscal budget at Tuesday night’s meeting, with a few changes from the original proposed budget presented to the council at the start of budget talks.

Instead of the original projection of $738,000, the adopted budget will have $898,000 of expenses over revenue at the start. The extra cash is due to several changes added at a Monday night budget meeting.

Those cost increases will go to repairs to the roof of the teen side of the Martin Luther King Jr. Building at West End Park, other upgrades to the building, upgrades to the Senior Citizens Building at City Park, a $5,000 litter van that will be passed contingent on private donations, fixing an air conditioning unit, a pickup truck for the New Iberia Fire Department and several demolitions to buildings not meeting property standards.

Depending on the cost of the air conditioning unit for the Martin Luther King Jr. building, some of those extra funds may be used for more demolitions as well.

“I just want the people to know that’s why the deficit went up,” Mayor Pro Tem Dan Doerle said.

Although the budget is technically a deficit, the city does have a fund balance to cover the expenses. City Finance Director Kevin Zerangue said as long as total funds are available, the city can pass the budget.

“Unfortunately we’ve operated this way for the past four years,” Mayor Freddie DeCourt said. “We’re waiting for the economy to get better. We are as strapped for cash as the parish and state.”

“This is one of our biggest deficits though,” Doerle replied.

“But it’s nothing new,” Councilman Dustin Suire said.

DeCourt said he anticipates he and his council to be amending the budget an unprecedented amount, in part due to several changes coming to the city such as the incoming New Iberia Police Department.

“We’ll be amending this budget more than any other council,” DeCourt said.

In other business, the City Council also approved a 2 percent raise for municipal employees. The raise is an annual requirement under the Municipal Civil Service guidelines.

Doerle said the city pays an extra $376,000 to cover the raise, which DeCourt said also covered longevity.

“Something we also give that’s not added is health insurance,” Doerle said. “There’s a $49,000 increase that we pay instead of the employees. That’s money this council approves that they might not see.”