INDReporter

LUS budget under scrutiny Monday

by Walter Pierce

The largest single area of City-Parish President Joey Durel's proposed budget for 2011 - Lafayette Utilities System - goes before the City-Parish Council Monday evening. The largest single area of City-Parish President Joey Durel's proposed budget for 2011 - Lafayette Utilities System - goes before the City-Parish Council Monday evening as budget briefings continue through the end of September. LUS is also scheduled for review on Tuesday along with Lafayette Consolidated Government's Communications Division.

With a proposed operations budget of more than $230 million, LUS represents more than a third of Durel's $611 million budget for the fiscal year that begins Nov. 1. When he submitted it to the council on July 29, Durel called it "the most challenging of the seven budgets I have sent to the council for consideration."

The council will take Wednesday off from budget hearings so the charter commission can convene; the CPC will resume hearings on Thursday when operations of the city and district court systems, the library system, the Cajundome and other entities are dissected. The process wraps up with a special meeting on Sept. 30 when the budget is finalized.