Cash flow issue ‘dire’ in St. Martinville

Published 10:00 am Wednesday, July 3, 2024

The St. Martinville City Council questioned a cash flow shortage in the city’s budget at Monday’s regular council meeting that has left the budget below the anticipated numbers.

Chief Financial Officer Avis Gutekunst said during her regular budget report that the city had a $311,000 shortfall from sales taxes and income during the most recent review of the city’s financials. 

“We’re under budget for sales taxes, and video poker is down,” Gutekunst said. “We haven’t reviewed the June financials so we’re assuming much better numbers.”

She added that the Enterprise Fund also saw a $491,000 shortfall.

Councilman Mike Fusilier changed the subject to overall cash flow in the city. After speaking to a city employee in accounting, Fusilier said St. Martinville’s financials were in “dire” circumstances in relation to the amount of money coming in to city coffers. 

“(They said) we are not collecting enough money to pay our bills,” Fusilier said.

“That is true, the mayor and I have talked about it and it has been an issue,” Gutekunst said. “We are paying out bills but it has been lower than in the past.”

Mayor Jason Willis said a lack of applying penalties to utility disconnection was likely part of the problem, as well as residents ducking their pay.

“We talk every couple of days about the cash flow, the budget is a projection from years prior so this is what happens when we don’t meet it,” he said.

After looking at the numbers, legal counsel Allen Durand said most of the shortfall has come from the electrical department. For the first 11 months of the recently ended fiscal year, the city was only $20,000 below its $2.5 million budget. It was only in the last few months that the electrical department suffered a serious cash flow deficit, he said.

“I’ll be honest, I think we just need to pull the numbers and see what’s going on,” Gutekunst said. “I balance the receivables once a month but it’s just now that something looks kind of off. It’s just something we need to look at.”