Hub Citizen Budget Guide

How does the Budget work?

Budgets account for revenues and expenses.

Revenue comes from property taxes, sales taxes, state and federal grants, utility bills, various fines, charges and more.

Expenses fall into one of three categories: personnel (salaries and benefits), professional services (contracts and contractors) and capital outlay (like infrastructure, public facilities, equipment). Each department produces a budget.

Funds assign revenues for the city and parish government expenses. Most are dedicated to specific services like drainage, roads or parks. For instance, a dedicated drainage tax flows to the drainage fund to cover drainage-related expenses. General funds account for undedicated money. 

What’s in the Budget?

Because Lafayette has a consolidated government, its budget includes revenues and expenses for city and parish functions. LCG reports budgets for each department and for capital improvements.

The Budget Explorer sorts and categorizes each department according to its function, making it easier to understand how resources are allocated in our community.

How is the Budget made?

There are essentially three phases to LCG’s budget process: 

1. Proposal: The mayor-president and his administration propose a budget.
2. Review: The councils review and amend it.
3. Adoption: The mayor-president signs off, with the power to veto amendments.

At final adoption, the mayor-president may veto the councils’ changes. That veto can be overridden by four or eight votes depending on if the line item is solely funded by the city or the parish or jointly funded. 

It doesn’t stop there. Budgets are living documents, and they’re adjusted throughout the year by the councils and administration through mid-year budget amendments.

Review is where most of the action is during the budget-making process. The councils hold hearings, working through the budget line by line and proposing amendments. At the end of that process, the councils vote on amendments, some individually if there’s a dispute; the rest as a group. 

Amendments are where the public has the most opportunity for impact. Every line item in the budget can be changed if enough council members and/or the mayor-president want them to. And that happens regularly, especially when council members hear from their constituents. 

How to Participate

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Our Coverage

Brief: Get caught up on Guillory’s mounting controversies

Local media turned up the heat on the mayor-president in August, reporting that may be turning into big-time investigations.

COLUMN: Five ways the councils should fix the budget

There are some good ideas in this year’s proposed budget. And some really bad ones.

Council Preview: Budget hearing; $16 million for University Avenue

Here is a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the City and Parish councils

LCG launched an infrastructure boom; Josh Guillory and his wife launched an equipment company

The firm’s creation, timed as LCG fuels a local construction boom, creates a minefield of potential conflicts.

BRIEF: What’s in LCG’s capital plan?

This year’s budget includes dozens of projects worth $419 million over the next five years. Here’s how it works and what’s in it.

COLUMN: How do we budget for LCG’s drainage follies?

There has been no public accounting of how much three drainage lawsuits could ultimately cost. The cases could blow multimillion-dollar holes in LCG’s budget.

Inflation, (big) raises and deficits: Five numbers to track in Lafayette’s proposed budget 

LCG’s last two budget cycles were mirror images. M-P Josh Guillory’s first budget was notable for its cuts, his second for its spending. And this one? Maybe a reckoning of the two. 

Take control of Lafayette’s budget in four easy steps 

Engaging in this budget-making process can be daunting. It doesn’t have to be.

Other Coverage? Better Name Needed

Link to theadvocate.com Northeast Lafayette Library talks spark questions about removing library board president  (opens in new window)

The Parish Council appoints all but one library board member and appointed Robert Judge in a controversial move.

Source: The Advocate

Link to theadvertiser.com LUS asks Lafayette City Council for 3-year rate bump on power, water (opens in new window)

LUS is asking for 3% increases in its base rate each year for the next two years. It is also asking to increase water rates by 8% and sewer rates by 9.5% a year for the next three years.

Source: The Advertiser

Link to theadvocate.com Parish Council finance chairman objects to large pay raises for LCG directors in 2022-23 budget  (opens in new window)

Lafayette Parish Council Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Naquin wants to remove from the proposed 2022-23 budget large pay raises for directors and other non civil service employees of Lafayette Consolidated Government.

Mayor-President Josh Guillory proposed pay raises in excess of $30,000 for some administrators who serve at his pleasure. Also in the proposed budget are raises between $8,000 and $20,000 for council administrative staff.

Source: The Advocate

Link to theadvertiser.com Lafayette department heads could get big raises if councils OK budget (opens in new window)

Mayor-President Josh Guillory is planning $211,000 in raises for his department directors in next year’s Lafayette Consolidated Government budget after 2% raises were approved in June.

Annual raises ranging from $5,000 to $38,000 were included for 11 department directors in Guillory’s proposed 2023 budget, which was revealed Tuesday.

Source: The Advertiser