Revenues down in Abbeville

Not wanting to let decreased revenue streams come as a surprise blow at the end of the year, the Abbeville City Council called a finance committee meeting Tuesday evening to review numbers for the first six months of 2016 .
What those numbers showed did not come as a shock, revenues are down, a reflection of the economic climate in south Louisiana. Sales tax revenues as well as utility revenues dipped in the first half of the year.
Compared to the first six months of ‘15, sales tax revenue is down $147,465 this year. There is a negative variance of $66,000 in regard to what the city budgeted this year.
“It’s kind of a double whammy,” Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza said. “There’s nothing we can do about the economy of course. Sales tax is completely driven by the economy. Worse than that, is that the electrical revenues, water and sewer also, is climate driven and not a thing you can do about that.”
Mild temperatures and heavier rains during the first few months of the year limited
electrical and water use in the city.
“It is the mildest winter and spring we have had in four years,” Piazza said. “It’s a direct reflection on the amount of revenues derived for utilities.”
The city collected $1,875,571 in electrical sales through June. That is down from $1,984,264 generated through the same time last year. It is down $274,429 from the budgeted $2.15 million for this year.
“I knew the picture was pretty grim when you looked at utilities,” Piazza said. “It’s a pretty big number. It is a concern.
“Hopefully we will catch up this summer, but it’s got a long way to go.”
Some catch up has been made. With the heat brought on by the summer, residents used 12,104,374 kilowatt hours last month, up nearly 3,000 from May.
“You can’t call it a trend,” Councilman Brady Broussard Jr. said, “but we are looking at a 20-percent bump in our electrical usage in June. If that is something we will see throughout the summer, that’s certainly going to heal a little of what we saw in the spring.”
Piazza did reference a past move by the council as being a positive for the present situation. The council created a Utility System Reserve Fund, one that currently holds more than $1.2 million.
“I want to commend the council for having the wisdom and foresight to establish that account,” Piazza said. “Quite frankly, we may need it.”
Steve Moosa, of Darnel, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick, who presented the numbers to the council said things are not all negative.
“Revenues are down about five percent,” Moosa said, “but expenditures are down two percent. There is about a three-percent variance, so there is nothing dramatic that needs to be done right now. I would just watch overtime.
“That is something that you can control.”
Wanting to assure that is the case, Councilman Francis Touchet Jr. made a motion that all overtime, expect for the electrical department, which as to often respond quickly to situations, must be approved by the mayor. Piazza agreed with the move.
“We need to closely monitor overtime as usual,” Piazza said. “We ask all department heads to spend prudently.”
Touchet said he wants the council to come back in three months and see where the finances and revenues stand.
“That will give us an idea of what kind of push we need to make before the end of the year,” Touchet said.