Avoyelles Police Jury expects to end year with surplus

As the 2019 budget year comes to a close, the Avoyelles Parish Police Jury has surpluses in three of its four operating funds and six of the seven “dedicated funding” accounts.

The only operating account that will spend more than was budgeted is the Road and Bridge Fund, with an expected deficit of $315,528.

Police Juror Charles Jones, who is heading the jury’s budget process, said that fund’s deficit will be addressed by surpluses in other accounts, so the overall budget will not run afoul of state auditors’ guidelines.

The numbers discussed at the jury’s agenda-setting committee on Dec. 4 could change before the end of the year, but are considered to be a good projection, Jones said.

FOUR OPERATING FUNDS

The four operating funds are the General Fund, Road & Bridge Fund, Solid Waste Fund and Drainage Fund.

General Fund is expecting to end the year with a $321,384 surplus. Solid Waste should have about $392,608 left over at the end of the year. Drainage is projected to have an $89,275 positive balance.

The combined surplus of the four funds is expected to be about $410,659.

Jones said several things contributed to the Road & Bridge Fund’s expenses outstripping its allotted revenues.

One is that most of the parish employees are paid out of that fund.

“Salaries and benefits make up 61 percent of this budget,” Jones said.

To avoid this happening in the future, employees will be divided among the operating accounts responsible for the services the employees provide.

Jones said another factor was a large state grant for several road projects that came in this year. The grant required a 25 percent match to secure the state funds.

The anticipated expenses in those four accounts is about $7 million, which means an overall projected surplus of about 5.8 percent to be added to their reserves.

The operating accounts began the year with a combined reserve of $7.4 million.

Auditors have told the Police Jury it should have sufficient reserves to operate for almost a year in the event of a drastic reduction in income.

More than half of that -- $4.8 million -- is in Solid Waste, which is funded with a 3/4-cent sales tax. That reserve has built up over the years since the sales tax was first approved.

The Police Jury has committed a large part of that reserve to improvements at the Parish Barn and parish dump site.

That reserve may also be needed to cover the solid waste program’s cost if those expenses exceed the amount generated.

While the “dedicated funding” accounts are in the Police Jury budget -- and the jury has responsibility for administering those funds -- the jury is unable to “borrow” or use the funds for any other purpose.

These accounts are funded through specific local taxes, state funding or federal funding.

These accounts are the Health Unit, Library, Road District #2, Tourism, Permit Office, HUD and HUD Administration.

Of those, only the HUD Fund is in danger of ending the year with a deficit, currently projected at $86,560.

Jones said the federally funded program’s funding usually lags a few months, but eventually catches up.

The HUD Fund started the budget year with $86,236 in reserve.