Lafayette Consolidate Government’s 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is out! (Click the red text to download your own copy). This is one of the best places to find high-level mis-prioritized spending going on inside LCG.
A few key points we discussed earlier today on the Ross Report today include:
The Courthouse Complex fund, on page 143, includes the 1010 Lafayette St. building, the parish courthouse, the buchanan garage, and the parish jail. That fund brought in $2 million MORE than they needed to operate last year, bringing their surplus form $7.8 million to $9.8 million. The “transfers out” line is worth a look. $1,534,926 was transferred out. The bulk of it went to the parish jail (previous page), but $77,063 was also transferred from this parish account to the city general fund.
Road and Bridge maintenance fund, on page 140, grew its surplus $4.3 million. Are you wondering why there are so many potholes?
Parish-wide drainage maintenance, on page 141 reflected regular spending at $7.8 million. However, on page 148 is a new “Storm water management fund” with a $11 million infusion. We’ll assume that money was the result of the drainage rededication from the November 2017 ballot. Only about one-percent of that was spent as of October 31, 2018.
The Cultural Economy Fund (created during the same November 2017 ballot initiative) ended the year with a $471,086 fund balance. This “very important initiative” from Joel Robideaux only spent $69,813 last year.
The public library, on page 150, ended up relatively flat with a $41 million surplus. As a point of reference, their total income was $14,521,434. That’s more than drainage received. That’s more than road maintenance received.
Municipal Transit (which is a city fund) is on page 151. Including the $1.4 million grant from the federal government, that department cost taxpayers $4,226,059 more than it brought in.
Recreation and Parks (not counting golf) cost taxpayers $6,670,139, of which $3,299,588 came right out of the parish general fund. Golf, which we’ll assume is a city fund, was subsidized by taxpayers $642,762.
Page 155 is the Science Museum, which cost city taxpayers $1,116,675. Don’t forget to add in the Heymann Performing Arts fund’s $281,632 loss.
If you’d like to compare these numbers to the 2017 or 2016 reports, simply click the red text and those reports will download. Page numbers will be close, but not necessarily exactly the same as above. Did we miss anything you’d like to talk about? Let us know!
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