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Funding Cuts Proposed for Lafayette Non Profits
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Posted On 07/05/2009 07:14:23 by grapevine
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William Theriot_____________Jared Bellard
By LafayetteGrapevine
The Lafayette City-Parish Council is once again set to take up the issue of eliminating funding for area nonprofits like Acadiana Center for the Arts and social service agencies like the Council on Aging.
The City-Parish council is set to take up the measure at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, July 7. A vote won't be taken until July 21. The proposal by City-Parish Councilmen Jared Bellard of the Scott area and William Theriot of the Youngsville-Broussard area, and supported by President Joey Durel, would phase in elimination of funding over a 3-year period.
"For a period of time," whatever that means, the responsibility and discretion for funding would be transfered to the Community Foundation of Acadiana, an organization which helps nonprofits get grants and other sources of money.
Starting in 2013, 100% of the money for the nonprofits and social service agencies would then go the Lafayette police and fire departments.
The proposed new law by Bellard and Theriot is 30th on the agenda, and after what is expected to be a heated debate on starting the process (engineering work) for street and drainage work on Ferrel Road, near St. Thomas More High School.
The issue of nonprofit cuts came up last year and was shot down with a 7-2 vote, with Bellard and Theriot voting for it. Too much cowardness by a few of the other 7 members I suspect who probably believe funding should be cut, but who also want to be elected next go around. Then again, there are members like Brandon Shelvin, who represents the poorest parts of our community, who want funding for social service agencies, and rightfully so.
It's a long standing debate nationally, and a pressure cooker for local politicians. Should government pay for operations and programs of nonprofit and social service groups?
One's first response may be "No" because government should only pay for our basic necessities, such as police and fire protection, streets and drainage, and some regulatory control of private excesses, i.e. building permits and inspections.
But there's always gray areas.
Funding for the Acadiana Center for the Arts, and many other nonprofits, including Festival International, is a source of economic development, one of those basic necessities of any government.
How much economic development? Does it really matter. Some is better than none.
A good evaluation of taxpayer's return on investment might be needed for each nonprofit. Hard to measure economic returns for social service agencies though because its the moral, neighbor helping neighbor factor that counts most, which is hard to measure. Statistics on the number of meals served by the Council on Aging doesn't measure the true story of an elderly woman who didn't go to bed hungry.
Here's the bottom line for social service agencies.
Funding for agencies, like the Council on Aging, is kinda a moral thing, not to mention a preventive against all kinds of other costs to government if not for these social service agencies.
The question always comes down to money.
In our community's case, it's about $452,723 for 23 nonprofit organizations.
Funding for nonprofits and social service agencies should continue considering the Durel administration's ability to obtain grants for necessary tasks, the economic development from nonprofits and all that comes with it, and the relatively little amount of money compared to the overall budget.
Council emails:
PurvisMorrison@lafayettela.govJayCastille@lafayettela.govBrandonShelvin@lafayettela.govKennethBoudreaux@lafayettela.govJaredBellard@lafayettela.govSamDore@lafayettela.govDonBertrand@lafayettela.govKeithPatin@lafayettela.govWilliamTheriot@lafayettela.gov
Tags: Lafayette City-Parish Council
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