[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council to pass amended 2013 budget which leaves many questions

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council to pass amended 2013 budget which leaves many
questions
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on December 14, 2012 at 2:02 PM, updated December 14, 2012 at 3:00 PM Print

The St. Bernard Parish Council must pass its 2013 budget on Friday night. It
will be a revised budget from the one introduced in October as it now will
factor in the fire millage that passed Saturday.

That 10-year, 20-mill fire tax is anticipated to bring in about $6 million
next year on top of about $2.5 million already generated annually from a
nearly 8-mill tax. The parish charter mandates that the council pass next
year's budget at its first regular council meeting in December.

A public hearing on that revised budget -- although its amendments still are
not publicly available -- will be held at the council meeting tonight at 7.
The new fire tax means that the St. Bernard Fire Department is now fully
funded, and that the government will not have to lay off the 79 firefighters
that Parish President Dave Peralta previously indicated, and that Fire Chief
Tommy Stone said would have greatly decreased the parish residents' safety
and would have increased homeowner insurance rates.

New funds and old cuts

If that millage hadn't passed, parish government would have had to drop its
contribution to the Fire Department from about $5.3 million to about $1
million next year, according to the proposed 2013 budget introduced in
October.

So now that the department is fully funded, that $1.1 million of anticipated
sales tax can instead be distributed to other departments. In turn, that is
expected to help cut back on some of the about 70 non-firefighter layoffs
that were anticipated on top of the fire personnel cuts in the initially
proposed 2013 budget.

"But, unfortunately, we still are looking at some personnel cuts," Chief
Administrative Officer Jerry Graves said earlier this week.

While the $1 million will help some, Graves and others could not immediately
provide revised layoff numbers. Graves said the Finance Department is
looking at grant opportunities to save additional personnel positions.

The parish government this year already has reduced non-firefighter staff by
about 60 positions, which includes about 95 positions eliminated through
layoffs, resignations or attrition, and about 35 new hires. Those employee
reductions have saved the parish about $1.6 million.

Possible amendments

2013 St. Bernard Parish budget introduced in October

In addition to layoffs, the 2013 budget proposed in October would have
eliminated overtime for the parish road crews, increased employee
contributions for health care and ended executive insurance plans, along
with many other cross-department expense cuts.

Council Chairman Guy McInnis said Friday afternoon that the Parish Council
likely will propose some amendments but that they are still being worked
out. McInnis said he and Councilmen Richie Lewis and George Cavignac met
Thursday night and mulled over the budget until about 2 a.m.

"We are working very hard to try to come up with a road map for our parish
services going forward, that is respectful of our employees' needs and that
tries to balance that out with the amount of available revenue, " McInnis
said. "I am hoping that we can have an amendment for that 2013 budget that
is a road map that provides all the necessary services for our citizens
moving forward."

Lewis, chairman of the Finance Committee, said Friday afternoon, "I am
making strategic cuts and transfers" in terms of the anticipated 2013 budget
amendments. There will not be 70 layoffs, but there still will definitely be
cuts made," he added.

Fire Department revenue

If the 20-mill fire tax had not passed, the Fire Department likely would
have become disqualified from a $3.5 million Staffing for Adequate Fire &
Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant that the department was awarded to
support 35 firefighters in the next two years. Despite having been awarded
that grant, the Fire Department had to guarantee that it would stay at its
current staffing levels to get the first year's $1.75 million.

Now, the parish will get the first $1.75 million next year, but it is
uncertain whether the parish will factor that into its anticipated revenue
note, or whether the parish will simply use the $1.75 million on top of $6
million in bond money, thereby allowing the Fire Department to use the extra
money to make service improvements.

Stone has said he would like to improve services to drop insurance ratings
lower for homeowners.

Lewis said the amount of money allocated for 2013 will equal the amount this
year. "We are going to put enough money in the Fire Department so that they
can operate the same as in 2012, without any cuts," Lewis said. "We are
going to take the SAFER grant and we are going to take that into
consideration when we levy the millage of taxes."

The millage will not be levied until the middle of next year. Still, whether
the anticipated revenue notes take that SAFER grant into consideration,
remains uncertain.

While many questions still linger, some of them likely will be answered when
the 2013 budget amendments are discussed at the 7 p.m. council meeting.