: Parish Council Awaits Budget Plan
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
St. Landry Parish Council members will have to wait a little longer before parish president Jessie Bellard explains how he plans to deal with an impending budget issue that has caused him to make significant budget cuts.
Bellard indicated in a statement last week that he has already taken administrative action by slashing $375,000 from the 2025 budget, a fiscal decision that he said is necessary to compensate for state-mandated expenses connected to inmate housing and juvenile services.
What is apparent, Bellard told St. Landry Now.com, is he now plans to use all of the $2 million line of credit the Council recently approved as an emergency funding source.
There is also a funding question, Bellard said in the press release, about how much the parish could receive from state or federal sources and storm-related expenditures connected to hurricane relief response.
The strategies he has in mind for handling the budget issues will be discussed at another meeting, Bellard told Council members last week during a Finance Committee meeting.
Committee chairman Harold Taylor asked Bellard during the meeting whether Bellard wanted to comment on any item related to the budget cuts or problems the parish might have..
However Bellard deferred any further statement regarding the budget.
“I will let the Council know. We will have a meeting to address this,” Bellard told the Committee.
What Is Being Done
The parish government budget is approaching a halfway mark for this year.
Bellard wrote in the press release that he has implemented staff reassignments, reduced some employees’ to part time status, consolidating other positions and he is not replacing other workers’ positions.
One investigative position Bellard said, has been eliminated.
The expense reductions, Bellard added, point to what he described as “financial realities, we are facing. It is crucial that we prioritize our mandated expenses.”
Looking At The Problem
According to line items in the operating budget last issued April 30, the parish at that point had already spent $136,675 for juvenile-related incarceration.
The parish the budget shows, originally budgeted $5,000 for court-mandate juvenile matters.
Bellard said in the interview with St. Landry Now.com, that he now expects to spend $720,000 for parish juveniles in 2025.
Another $865,000 was budgeted for parish prisoner feeding, housing, transportation and medical expenses, but at this point, the costs for those issues are trending less than projected..
However most of the anticipated revenues for prisoners have not been received, according to the budget.
The parish is short $43,576 for prisoner intake reimbursements, $39,823 for municipal prisoner feeding, $8, 342 for prisoner expenses and $17,194 for prisoner medical reimbursements for the budget projections approved in January.
