Panel looks at budget

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Iberia Parish Council’s Finance Committee mulled through budget proposals from the Iberia Parish Airport Authority and parts of Public Works at Monday night’s budget meeting.

The meeting is one of several the IPC is conducting before ultimately passing its 2018 fiscal year budget.

The IPAA gets its major source of revenue from property it is able to lease to individuals and companies, Finance Director Kimberly Segura said. There also is a significant amount of revenue coming from farmers, mostly sugar cane and soybean, who plant at the airport.

IPAA secretary Megan Breaux said most of the expenditures came from professional services at the airport during spending this year.

“We upped that a lot because we’re hoping to have some shovel ready projects when they do come to light,” Breaux said. “Other than that, the budget stays the same.

Some of those grants include a $1 million dollar grant from the state that will go toward airway lighting, and also a $700,000 federal grant for an IPAA filet project.

The parish’s solid waste budget also was reviewed during the meeting, which includes the revenue from two quarter-cent sales taxes that are used as the sole source of revenue to pay for Iberia Parish’s solid waste contract with Progressive Waste.

In 2016, the parish had $2.5 million in revenue for solid waste, which decreased to $2.2 million this fiscal year. Segura said the revenue is projected to decrease again for the next fiscal year as well.

There was also a hiccup this year because the finance department estimated there would be a decrease in the number of houses served by the waste contract due to the IPC’s decision to remove certain mobile homes from solid waste pickup.

With that ordinance currently being disputed in court, the parish conducted a house count and found more homes being served than anticipated. Segura said she budgeted those homes for the 2017 and 18 fiscal years.

There was also a decision made by the administration earlier this year to no longer supply recycling pickup in Iberia Parish. Instead, waste bins have been spread throughout the parish where residents can dump off their recycling waste.

The Parish Council has another budget meeting Oct. 29.