St. John Parish Schools boasting a $9.6 million surplus in finance report

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 21, 2007

By KERI CHAMPION

Staff Reporter

RESERVE- The $9.6 million surplus in the St. John the Baptist Schools is just one of the positive findings in the School Board’s finance report.

&#8220Debts are down, assets are up, and sales tax revenue in the 2006 fiscal year was near an all-time high,” said board member Clarence Triche.

&#8220In the last year, we have raised salaries, decreased property taxes by two mills and approved bond issuances, all in one day. We are doing very well with what we have,” said board member Russ Wise.

&#8220We are forced to follow the same regulations as parishes with more money like St. Charles and St. James who have a higher presence of industry, but the St. John system is managing to do more with less funding. We are very proud of that accomplishment,” said St. John comptroller Felix Boughton.

Boughton said that St. John the Baptist Parish has some of the lowest property taxes in the state.”

&#8220Sales tax revenue from displaced Katrina helped us with the surplus, but so did FEMA and other federal money. The federal government was very fair with the distributed Katrina funds. If there was just one displaced student in the school, all teachers on staff were given a pay increase on the chance that they may have interactions with that one student,” Boughton said.

&#8220We were the closest to ground zero, so we definitely benefited in sales tax with an increased number of students, but sales tax revenue is up and down and we don’t count on that,” he said.

&#8220The surplus equals about 15 percent of the overall general fund budget which is the highest amount recommended by financial advisors. The surplus is being invested in Louisiana Management Assets Group (LAMP) to be saved in case of a decline in revenue,” he said.

&#8220We do money right in St. John Parish. The board has the highest available credit rating for a public entity. In the last five years we improved our credit rating three times,” said Wise.