The Lafayette Consolidate Council will beging a series of hearings Wednesday for the 2009-10 budget — seven meetings in all that will comb through the budget line by line, followed on Aug. 27 by a meeting devoted to public input and up to two follow-up meetings after that. Last week City-Parish President Joey Durel submitted a proposed $587 million budget, down $49 million or 8 percent from the ’08-09 budget in anticipation of a continuing decline in sales tax revenue.
Wednesday’s 4 p.m. meeting will look at police and fire department expenses. Additional meetings — all of them scheduled for 4 p.m. — will be held Monday, Aug. 10 (public works and capital improvements), Tuesday, Aug. 11 (18 departments/entities including district attorney, the health unit, city marshal’s office and the Cajundome), Wednesday, Aug. 19 (parks/recreation, administrative and information services, community development), Thursday, Aug. 20 (traffic, planning, city prosecutor, adult corrections), Monday, Aug. 24 (utilities and communications) and Wednesday, Aug. 26 (administration, council, finance and management).
LCG has posted a complete schedule of budget hearings with items up for consideration here.