If neither you, your business nor your home parish or city are struggling financially in the wake of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, consider yourself fortunate, writes Jeremy Alford in his new opinion piece.
In the city of Monroe, due to a recent hurricane and the coronavirus, municipal officials are predicting a $1 million deficit for the fiscal year that ends this month. More than 200 miles away in Iberville Parish, leaders are bracing for the aftereffects of the shutdown. About 75% of the parish budget relies on sales taxes, or about $6 million per month.
In Lake Charles, locals are wondering what impact the closure of gaming operations will have in the short term. Casinos and other forms of gaming contribute roughly $36 million to Calcasieu Parish each year, but that number will fluctuate downward for 2020, during which the regional tourism agency, Visit Lake Charles, is predicting an overall economic loss of $500 million.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell recently announced the city faces a $150 million budget deficit and that the Sewerage and Water Board was going broke. In Baton Rouge, meanwhile, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is already asking Congress to help with hazard pay for the city’s essential workers, even as it sits on $93 million in reserves.
While some parishes are already openly warning about bankruptcies, those in healthy fiscal shape appear to be struggling as well, Alford writes.
“No one can predict what will happen to our tax base, parish or state,” Terrebonne Parish President Gordy Dove, a former state representative, told LaPolitics. “We’ve had to spend a lot of money sanitizing government buildings and protective equipment to ensure parish government keeps running. None of this was anticipated.”
Read Alford’s full column about the situation.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or on Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
