Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The state of Louisiana just put St. Landry Parish on the clock. Six months show the cuts or parish government loses control of its checkbook. Welcome back to another episode of the parish Circuit. I'm Stuart Amidon, and this one is breaking, so I'm sitting in the room by myself to talk you through it. This week, the state bond commission for the state of Louisiana. Think of that as like a loan committee for local governments in Louisiana. Took up the topic of St. Landry parish. The parish took out what's called a revenue anticipation loan. That's basically borrowing against the taxes that you expect to collect. But there's an issue here. They didn't collect enough to pay back the loan. So the parish went to the state asking for more time.
Now, the parish was granted this time. They were granted six more months. But some pretty serious conditions came alongside these. So legislative auditor Michael Wagaspack told the commission his office has been inside the parish's books for about a year now. And to be positive, he said the parish has been very cooperative. They've opened their books. Nobody's hiding money in drawers. In other words, words, he's saying it doesn't look like dirty operations are going on here. His words are that the parish is just short and overspending.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: It's not like somebody's hiding money's in drawers or anything. It's just they're just short. Correct.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: And they're overspending.
And Wagsbach had numbers. Salary spending of about $460,000 in April, 33 one in May. The parish keeps projecting it'll drop to around 236, but it keeps not happening.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: They have a history of making projections, saying they're gonna make these cuts, but it hasn't happened.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Waggesbach also called it a political reluctance to make the cuts.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: We have good dialogue with them, but I don't think they can stomach the cuts. And they just have to stomach the cut.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: So here's the ultimatum. Every month, the auditors from the State of Louisiana are gonna check the math. And if the cuts aren't happening and at least one representative actually push to give not just not six months, but a single quarter, the state convenes what it calls a fiscal review committee. That's the treasurer, the attorney general, and the legislative auditor. And if all three agree, the attorney general goes to a judge and gets a fiscal administrator appointed. Now, what does that mean? So Wagaspack puts it plainly.
He says parish government is out of business.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Then the AG will file a motion with the court and appoint a Fiscal administrator to basically say, parish government, you're out of business.
Fiscal administrator takes over and starts to make all the decision.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: And they've already made calls to line somebody up. Once a court signs off, that person is on site within a week or two.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Usually when the court makes the appointment, it's pretty immediate. Within a week or two, we try to get somebody lined up and vet them and to see if they're interested. And we've already actually made a call to someone.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: So we've reached out to Paris President Jesse Bellard, and his response was actually not what you would expect from somebody who's looking at a state takeover.
Quote, Jesse Bellard says we will be fine. There is no issues at the office.
He actually called the state's involvement a blessing to St. Landry parish. And that's a quote.
His argument is that the state's own review will finally prove what he's been saying all along, that the parish doesn't bring in enough revenue. And he told us that the auditors arrive on Tuesday to start looking at everything. He also told us that cuts are happening. They're ending transportation at Community Action. There's more layoffs that are coming, and they're also consolidating positions. All he says to avoid touching the state mandated services. Now, to Jesse's credit, he does not seem shaken by these things. He seems like a man with a clean conscience. And so the result of these events will be interesting to keep an eye on for the next several weeks and months. Now, longtime Paris Circuit listeners have heard both sides of this. On this show, Bellard sat with us and walked us through the math. $2.7 million coming into the general fund every year, 4.6 million in mandated expenses going out, a $2 million difference every year before anything even goes sideways. But Sheriff Gidro also sat in this same room and he said no. He said the mandates have been there forever. He says that the mandates didn't do this. He pointed at spending choices, and several of those examples was $75,000 animal control investigators, $90,000 trucks, while an $84,000 crime lab bill was not paid for two years. And as a result, cases stalled. And that's basically the exact argument that seems to be playing out right now on the state level. Bellard says that revenue is the problem.
The state auditor says that spending is the problem.
And in six months, we, the citizens of St. Landry Parish, is going to see who's right.
One more thing to watch. Bellard's plan to pay back the money the parish borrowed from the road fund leans hard on the solar farm payments. But Waggesback told the commission that he thinks that project is debt shifting to more of a battery storage project, which pays, in Waggesback's word, a lot less.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: I think they were hinging on that payment of taxes from the solar farm. I think Nextera was engaged in discussions. I think that has been pushed off the table now and realistically I don't think those operations are coming to fruition anymore. I think they're moving to more of the battery storage type deals, which is a lot less.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Those two things cannot both be true and the Parish's repayment plan hangs on that answer. So Saint Landry Parish, pay attention. Auditors in the building on Tuesday. Monthly check ins are starting and we have six months, maybe less, on the clock. We will be following this at the Parish Circuit as the story continues to develop. Thank you guys so much for listening. You go to the parishcircuit.com to find more news articles and resources and we will see you all next time.
