At $92.5 million, the 2016 budget for St. Charles Parish includes levee system projects, a new parish District Attorney’s annex and additional personnel for the Public Works Department.
“This is the smallest budget that V.J. St. Pierre has passed since coming in office,” parish Chief Financial Officer Grant Dussom said of the parish president since he took office eight years ago.
Council members adopted the budget last Monday.
Although it’s 32 percent lower than this year’s budget of $135 million, Dussom said next year’s budget decrease is mostly due to the timing of funding for the parish’s costly levee projects. Also, parish general fund would take a $1.4 million hit in property tax revenue from a 25 percent cut in the inventory tax credit that routes millions to local government entities with main recipients being the parish government, Sheriff’s Office and School System.
Parish government’s biggest revenue sources are sales taxes and ad valorem tax, as well as grants.
A change in next year’s budget includes the creation of a new fund, called the “Flood Protection Fund,” for $3.6 million coming from the 4-mill property tax referendum for levees that voters supported in May.
The $2.6 million DA annex has been approved with an added $212,000 budgeted for architectural fees, signaling the beginning of construction next year. The structure will be built behind the parish courthouse in Hahnville.
Dussom said the Public Works Department, with the largest budget in parish government in personnel and projects will go from this year’s $64.6 million to $33.1 million budget because of the timing of funding. Public works projects encompass everything from levees to bicycle paths.
An additional 15 new hires were approved for roads and drainage work, representing a 13.5 percent increase for personnel.
Capital projects also adopted with the budget include:
– West Bank Hurricane Protection Levee (construction only) – $3.6 million- West Bank Levee engineering – $1 million- Local Road Maintenance Program – $1.2 million- Remainder of levee multi-use paths on the West Bank (Phases IV and V) – $3.2 million- IMTT Field Improvements (St. Rose) – $275,000- Engineer’s Canal upgrade (Norco) – $670,000- Dunleith Canal Stabilization Phase VI (Destrehan) – $924,000
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