JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — The Jefferson Parish council is going into the New Year with almost a billion-dollar budget. The money has already been allocated, with a plan in place to spend it all.
2024's budget sits at $966 million dollars. A large chunk of the money, $695 million worth, will go towards operations. That's what money it takes to actually run the parish. The second largest allocation is for capital improvements. $135 million will go towards drainage, streets, and sewerage improvements. According to our partners at NOLA.com, "The budget projects revenue at only $908.8 million, but is balanced with other fees and transfers.
Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said, "I hope for a very calm 2024. I hope that we can focus on growing this parish and making sure we give the best services to our citizens and our businesses."
Sheng said the JP spent much of the year on the defense. Still rebounding from COVID impacts, aging infrastructure and potential impacts from a saltwater intrusion. On the bright side, there were no hurricanes that hit the area, so that's always a plus. Going into 2024, Sheng said they are investing millions into drainage and water projects. While it's a much needed investment, the goal is to maintain improvements for years to come.
"We're hoping to deliver the citizens a modern water and sewer system with the complete pipe replacement and new water treatment plan and new backup you know, energy for our sewer systems. So that's a big undertaking that we were able to get the start of the financing, but the projects are going to start coming to fruition and being designed and that's going to take up a lot of our time," she said.
That's why JP residents will see and increase on their water bills come January. Sheng said that will generate over a billion dollars over the next 20 years that will go directly towards improving the water systems in the parish.
"We're doing minimal increases every year and people feel the pain in January but it's very minimal. We have a whole host of projects, both water and sewer, that is the increase for that. So, I think that transparency is what people want to see."
In the New Year, Sheng is continuing a push to revitalize some parks across the parish with low participation. While there was push back by some community members in the beginning, she said things are moving along. JP is also allocating funding to addressing resources for the aging population of JP.
Sheng said, "Our youth participation rates have increased 30%, but we're constantly looking for new ways to get citizens involved. We're an aging parish. We're an aging demographic. That's why pickleball fits in so nicely because there's a lot of seniors that play pickleball. We're also going to look at the senior services that we have."
The parish has already broken ground on 4 new courts and are converting old tennis courts at area parks for pickleball play.
Aside from Parks and Rec., Sheng said the parish is also transitioning to a new trash hauler for the east bank and will have larger recycling bins parish wide. Moving forward Sheng said she is focused on 3 things: improving how citizens can interact with the parish, federal dollars, and delivering better government services.
In 2024, the parish is creating an online payment hub where people can pay all their parish bills in one place. With the influx of federal funding that has come in over the last few years, Sheng said they will be looking to see how that money can best be used. That trickles down to improving government services.
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