At Parish Council, mayor wants to know where casino money went

Mayor Lee Dragna wants to know what happened to the $61,000 share that Morgan City once received each year from the money parish government receives from the Amelia Belle Casino.
Parish President David Hanagriff agreed to explain it to the Morgan City Council.
At Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting, Dragna said the Morgan City government received the $61,000 each year until three years ago. Statistics show that opening a casino leads to an increase in crimes such as theft and domestic abuse in the surrounding area, Dragna said, and the $61,000 helped offset the increased cost of policing.
Dragna said City Council members are asking questions, and he wants to know what to tell them.
“We’re trying to figure out why we got cut $61,000 three years ago and the Sheriff’s Office still gets $900,000,” Dragna said.
Under an agreement with the casino, Amelia Belle pays the parish government a set amount each year based on the casino’s revenue. The default amount is $1.5 million. The parish receives either $1.4 million if casino revenues fall below a target level, or $1.6 million if revenues exceed that level.
For the last three years, Chief Administrative Officer Henry C. “Bo” LaGrange said, the parish has received $1.4 million from the casino, and the parish budget stopped including the money paid to municipalities.
The $900,000 doesn’t actually go to the Sheriff’s Office, LaGrange said, but for the operation and maintenance of the St. Mary Parish jail. The money from Amelia Belle also supports general parish operations and pays down bond debt, including the recent bond issue for road improvements, LaGrange said.
Hanagriff said Morgan City was among the cities that benefited from the bond issue.
The parish president offered to come to the next Morgan City Council meeting, scheduled for May 24, to explain the parish’s position.
Also Wednesday, the council passed a resolution supporting construction of a new Acadiana Crime Lab.
District attorneys in the eight parishes served by the Iberia-based lab, including Bo Duhé of the 16th Judicial District, have been gathering resolutions of support for the new lab.
They’re looking for funding through the Legislature’s capital funding process. The $20 million needed for the 40,000-square-foot lab would have to include a $5 million match from local sources, and the resolutions are intended to express commitment to the project.
The DAs have developed a formula based on the number of evidence submissions to the lab in 2019. Under that formula, the St. Mary Parish government’s share would be about $378,000.
The resolution passed Wednesday isn’t the same as an appropriation of the money. Duhé said officials are looking for alternative funding methods that might take some of the burden from the parish budget.
The council also set several property tax rates for 2022. The move reauthorizes existing millages.
They are: 5.72 mills for maintenance and support and 0.31 mills for debt service for the parish library system; 7.60 mills on property outside municipalities for general parish purposes; and 3.80 mills on property inside municipalities to support the criminal justice system.