Some elected officials in Lafayette Parish are butting heads over the proposed 2014 LCG budget.
City-Parish President Joey Durel wants to take six million dollars from the Lafayette Parish roads, bridges and drainage taxes, and use that to pay the parish's portion of operating costs for LCG.
But parish councilmen are split on the move. District 9 Councilman William Theriot doesn't support the proposal because taking that money away from unincorporated areas, he says, would be detrimental.
"The unincorporated areas needs every bit of money they can muster," Theriot said. "So it is a concern, that's a substantial amount of money especially considering that the unincorporated areas do not produce as much revenue as another municipality in Lafayette, of course."
But District 2 Councilman Jay Castille, who also represents a largely unincorporated area, agrees with the proposed budget move. He says it's the right thing for the parish
"You can't spend city funds in the parish, so this kind of straightens that out and cleans it up and takes that big argument out of the city having to fund parish projects," Castille said.
The move would not affect projects currently underway, but could put the brakes on future public works projects in unincorporated areas. Theriot also questions how these areas could fund and fix roads, or drainage problems in the future.
"In the city of Lafayette, all Lafayette's water drains through the unincorporated areas to get to where it needs to go," Theriot said. "So if drainage laterals in the unincorporated are not maintained, where's the water in the city of lafayette going to go."