ณาฐฟฑทดดกณขทกณงฬโ€” Ascension Parish government's $210.4 million budget for 2019 anticipates using more than half its spending next year on a "very aggressive" program of capital projects aimed at improving roads, building new drainage structures, a new courthouse and fire stations, and bettering parish parks.

The overall budget represents an 83 percent increase from what parish officials expect to spend through 2018, but only if all of the $110 million in capital spending planned for 2019 is completed, parish officials said.ย 

Whether the parish can do all that in one year remains to be seen. Past years' spending plans have rarely accomplished all they set out to do amid the complications of federal wetlands permits, land acquisition and other slow-moving hurdles that often extend projects into later years.

For example, $17 million is set aside in 2019 for the Laurel Ridge Levee extension, a project tied up in a legal dispute with Livingston Parish. The budgeted capital spending in 2019, an election year for parish officials, is almost quadruple the capital spending expected to be finished through 2018 at $30.6 million.

On the operational side of the budget, the parish plans to spend $99.3 million in 2019, about $7 million more than in 2018. The spending includes a 46 percent increase requested by District Attorney Ricky Babin to compensate for lost fee revenue, rising insurance costs and a salary inflation adjustment, potentially for more than 500 parish employees.

The operational spending counts on $96 million in new revenue for 2019 and about $3.25 million in surplus to cover remaining expenses, primarily for the people who run government and the equipment and other costs needed to do their jobs.ย 

But the highlight of budget is the array of capital work called for in 2019, financed through grants, dedicated surplus dollars, long-term debtย and internal government loans.

The latest of those projects were added Thursday night through amendments adopted with the final 2019 budget. They include a $2.6 million expansion of the multi-use gym at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center and the purchase of three portable sports courts to convert Lamar-Dixon's large 4-H Building temporarily into a sports facility, parish officials said.

Councilmen who sit on the parish Recreation Committee had initially anticipated seeking a 10-year, $3 million bond issue to pay for the improvements, but have settled on a loan from the parish's 1-cent sales tax fund. The fund holds revenue from the parish's 1-cent sales tax, the primary undedicated revenue source for parish government that is projected to have $20 million in 2019.ย 

Recreation must pay back the sales tax fund over 10 years at 3 percent interest, according to amendments read aloud Thursday night.

Councilman Travis Turner, chairman of the committee and an ardent youth basketball backer, said Friday the gym expansion and the added portable courts will raise the number of multi-use courts at Lamar-Dixon to six.

In a meeting earlier this month, B.J. Romano, recreation director, told Turner that the parish will rely on seven to eight courts in public schools this year to accommodate all the children in the parish' east bank basketball program. Romano said without the school system's annual cooperation, the parish program would be in a bind.

Parish officials also had planned on using the bond issue concept to pay for new spray parks in St. Amant and Dutchtown, but Turner, who had sought a gym expansion for several years, said Friday that funding for those parks will added in amendments early next year and paid for through the recreation fund.ย  ย  ย  ย  ย 

But the bond will be used to pay for added bathrooms at the Lamar-Dixon soccer field, Councilman Aaron Lawler said.

Beyond recreation, the budget anticipates $30 million in spending on the Move Ascension road program, which is aimed at capacity expansion and safety improvements. That program could see significant road construction start in 2019 after more than a year of design and other preliminary work. Another $6.7 million is projected for regular overlay work, road ditch improvements and other street spending outside Move Ascension.

The parish also plans to spend $8.3 million on new or renovated fire stations, including replacements for stations that flooded in 2016.ย 

Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave.

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