Abbeville's budget in good shape for 2014

The 2014 City of Abbeville budget looks good and people will benefit because of it.
The proposed operating budget for 2014 is $26 million, which will equal the amount of revenue the city is estimated to make next year.
The balanced budget includes a .50 cent per hour raise for all 157 regular employees and a two percent raise for all fire, police and city court personnel.
The budgeted payroll for 2014 is around $5.5 million, counting the raise.
Heading into the year, the city will have three fewer positions budgeted from the prior year.
Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza, said despite the positive numbers, “We must continue to carefully monitor and restrict overtime usage as necessary to meet our financial budget.”
The Mayor said the city will utilize another $600,000 Federal LCDBG grant to fund the asphalt overlay on certain Abbeville streets.
Looking over the 2014 budget, Abbeville Councilman Brady Broussard questioned why the city court fines have dropped from $144,000 in 2012 to only $80, 000 in 2014.
“We are showing $63,000 in the hole from 2012 and 2013,” Broussard noted. “Why the decline?”
Councilman Francis Touchet wanted someone to investigate as to why the drop.
Bart Belaire, the city prosecutor, gave his thoughts on why the decline in fines. He said there are thousands of warrants that need to be served, which would be the city revenue if the warrants were served.
“We (city) do not have a jail,” Belaire.
Because the city doesn’t have a jail, it transports its arrested prisoners to the parish jail. Normally, there is no jail space in the parish jail to hold all of the criminals if the warrants were served. Because of limited jail space, only a handful of warrants can be served.