[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council strikes down 2012 budget amendments

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council strikes down 2012 budget amendments
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, Staff Writer 
on October 16, 2012 at 7:18 PM, updated October 16, 2012 at 9:25 PM Email |
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The St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday struck down an amended 2012 budget
with Council Chairman Guy McInnis saying it was "cloudy" and other council
members arguing that they didn't have enough time to review it before the
meeting. Many council members said they had received the budget summary just
about 20 minutes before the meeting.

Parish Finance Director Beverly B. Gariepy said she wasn't given enough time
by the council to prepare the summaries. She said she understood why the
council would want more time to review the amended budget but that what she
gave them did "adequately reflect where we are today."

"The budget should get clearer and clearer and clearer coming to Dec. 31. It
should not get more and more cloudy," McInnis told Gariepy. "And if we don't
have an accurate budget that we believe will happen through the end of the
year by Oct. 30, then it will be very hard to go through this budget
process."

On Oct. 3, the Parish Council passed a resolution asking Parish President
Dave Peralta to reduce the 2012 budget by 10 percent as the parish continues
to face a severe budget crunch. The budget summary introduced on Tuesday was
a reflection of those cuts.

By striking down the budget until it can further review the numbers, now the
council is expected to vote on the amended budget at its Nov. 6 meeting. The
administration on Tuesday had submitted an amended budget that showed about
$1.3 million in savings compared with the original 2012 budget passed by
last year's Parish Council members.

That amended budget suggests deferring some parish maintenance issues and
shuffling some money that would postpone a few parish projects.

"The budget should get clearer and clearer ... It should not get more and
more cloudy." -- Parish Council Chairman Guy McInnis
At its Oct. 3 meeting, the council had introduced a working 2013 budget that
represented $8.5 million in cuts for the coming year. The bulk of those cuts
were suggested through layoffs, with about 150 employees potentially on that
chopping block.

That was a worst-case scenario budget as, under law, the parish budget must
be introduced 90 days before year's end. The budget actually will not be
adopted until Dec. 2. Before then, the 2013 budget with be discussed
extensively at council hearings on Nov. 3 and 10.

Peralta has said that in order to avoid the proposed 2013 cuts,  parish
residents likely would have to pass two proposals on the December ballot: an
increased fire millage and a rededication of the sanitation sales tax.

On Tuesday, McInnis said Gariepy needs to provide the council with a clearer
2012 budget by next week so council members can begin preparing for the 2013
budget hearings.

Also on Tuesday, the council decided to strike down a proposed introduction
to employees' health insurance contribution, with Councilman Richie Lewis
arguing it didn't make sense to vote on the health care changes without
having a more accurate understanding of the current year's amended budget.

The administration had said that under the proposed health care changes,
employees who do not claim any dependents would begin paying about $130 a
month for insurance; currently, those  employees do not have to contribute
anything. For employees with dependents on their plans, such employees could
see $50 or more in savings.