Jeers – Cut the nonessentials
The Lafourche Parish School Board is once again facing budget difficulties.
The superintendent gave the board a list of cost-saving measures Wednesday night. The full list could save as much as $10.6 million, said Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews. But the board must figure out a way to cut at least $6 million in expenses to account for an anticipated decrease in revenue.
The initiatives for savings that Matthews brought to the board focus on leaving vacant certain jobs as people leave and reducing the number of school buses the system uses.
One place the board could cut costs, though, would be by reducing its own size. Going down from 15 to nine members could save $100,000 a year. That won’t get the system out of a $6 million hole, but it will be a meaningful gesture for a cash-strapped agency.
The board can reduce its size, align its districts to those used by the Parish Council, return a savings to taxpayers and make things less confusing for voters – all in one effort.
It should do so at once.
Cheers – Good government request
Lafourche Parish Councilwoman Luci Sposito has a great idea for Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle: Share more information.
That is good advice for government officials in general. And it is mandatory in the case of asking that the parish president supply annual finance reports to the council.
“We need that to govern properly and to know the state of the parish. Finances and activities are an important part of that,” Sposito said this week.
They certainly are. And the parish president should be happy to share that information with the council and the members of the public they represent.
In addition, Sposito is proposing that a committee be formed to review the Home Rule Charter and see if the document needs updates or adjustments.
Another great idea.
Cheers – Oil exports
“With this (President Donald Trump’s) administration, we’re talking about exporting oil for the first time. We’re sending millions of barrels of oil overseas to be refined in other places,” Louisiana Oil and Gas Association Vice President Gifford Briggs said Thursday in Houma.
Briggs said the increased exporting activity will be a good thing for the industry. And that could mean good things for our region, which has been hit so hard by the recent downturn.
And ports, such as Port Fourchon, could take on added significance as export hubs for natural gas.
That, too, could be a boon for our region.
Let’s hope that small pieces of good news are just the tip of the iceberg for an area that really needs a return to economic good fortune.
Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper, not of any individual.