Almost $1 million in additional expenses added to Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 2015-16 budget were approved by default Monday when City-Parish President Joey Durel declined to sign the budget approved by the City-Parish Council Sept. 3. Council members added the additional spending via amendments to the budget, which, according to Councilman Don Bertrand, went into effect at 4:15 p.m. Monday. Durel has line-item veto power and had threatened to nix the extra expenditures, which include funding for cultural events and infrastructure upgrades in several council districts.
But in a memo to Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux, the council’s finance chairman, Durel acknowledged that the council likely had the votes to override any vetos: “While I understand that election year politics is at play, and I vehemently disagree with most of the additional spending, I have come to realize that the votes do not exist to prevent a veto override. Obviously, I am disappointed in the council’s action and consider this to be highly irresponsible, but I have no desire to go through an exercise in futility.”
According to the Lafayette Home Rule Charter, the city-parish president has 10 days to issue a veto, after which time an ordinance or other spending measure becomes law. Durel no doubt worked some back channels among council members in taking the full 10 days before ceding the issue.
LCG’s three-term chief executive, entering the final months of his time in office, had urged the council on Sept. 3 to trim more than $630,000 of those additional expenses to avoid forcing local government dipping into its rainy day fund: "This budget is using over 15 percent, which is our policy, of fund-balance excess ... and that’s going to have consequences on us and on this government and on future potential bond ratings,” Durel warned council members Sept. 3. “We’re also exceeding things at a time when we know for sure that our sales taxes are declining, and we know for sure, almost definitely, that next year will not necessarily be a good year for sales tax collections and maybe for the economy pretty much overall.”
The next fiscal year begins Nov. 1.