Parish Council: Budget overshadows news about potential employer

Parish President Sam Jones hinted at an economic development win for St. Mary at Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting. But the ghost of budgets past also rattled some chains, leading to a couple of sharp exchanges between Jones and the chairman of the council’s budget committee.
The positive hint was what Jones said is a business that could create 200 construction jobs and 60-100 longer-lasting jobs. He said he isn’t ready to name the prospective employer yet.
That would follow the April announcement that Texas company Saronica has acquired the Gulf Coast shipyard on the Charenton Canal. That move is expected to create 500 jobs over the next few years as Saronica develops its Marauder autonomous surface vessel for the military.
“If you produce the jobs,” Jones said, “people will live here.”
The parish has lost employment during the last two council terms, Jones said, even while neighbors Terrebonne and Iberia have been growing.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that St. Mary has experienced year-over-year declines in employment in six of the last 10 years. St. Mary employment has fallen from 27,072 at the end of 2014 to a provisional total of 19,838 in December 2024.
In shipbuilding alone, a core industry for St. Mary, employment has fallen from 1,238 in 2015 to 764 in 2024, according to the bureau’s statistics.
“What went wrong?” Jones asked.
From there, Jones segued into a warning that another tough budget year is ahead.
After trimming $4 million from the first budget of this term, the parish government faces about half a million in work at the “Babe” Landry Landfill in Berwick in the next parish government budget.
In the past, Jones has said the parish carries too much debt, has had to struggle to make its payroll, and either couldn’t or failed to take advantage of opportunities to match grants.
Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews of Jeanerette, who chairs the budget committee, has heard it before. Jones implies that past councils have mishandled the budgets, Mathews said, and “I strongly disagree with that.”
He accused Jones of trying to “hijack every part of the combined budget. … I think it’s in poor taste to do it in the manner you have.”
“The facts are the facts,” Jones said. “I’m not saying any one person did it. But there was failure here.”
Jones and Mathews had words again over Mathews’ request for $5,000 from the 0.3% sales tax dedicated to wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 10. The request was for the Baldwin Police Department.
Baldwin voters overwhelmingly approved a penny sales tax in December for public safety, including police. The tax is expected to raise $180,000 per year.
Jones noted that fact and said the department has also received a $50,000 grant.
“You can vote for it,” Jones said. “But we’ll use Article V if we have to.”
Article V of the parish home rule charter says that if revenues aren’t enough to cover appropriations, the parish president must report the amount of the deficit, any steps taken to fix it and recommendations for further steps.
Mathews argued that efforts to reduce violence in Baldwin are important.
“The parish president doesn’t get to say what we’re going to do by himself …,” Mathews said. “You’re doing it for selfish reasons.”
“No, I’m not,” Jones said.
The council approved the appropriation on a voice vote.
Also Wednesday, Chief Administrative Officer Paul Governale passed along a report from the St. Mary Levee District on progress on the pump station upgrades in Consolidated Gravity District No. 2A. A $12 million-$14 million boost from the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is funding the upgrades after Morgan City experienced widespread flooding during Hurricane Francine.
The report included news that a generator has been received for Pump Station No. 9 near Lake Palourde and that two natural gas pumps are being overhauled at Pump Station No. 4, which serves the Marquis Manor and Cypress Garden area. They’ll be available while a contractor installs new engines and pumps at that station.