Six public works jobs in Iberia Parish have been cut. Last night, the parish council approved the 2019 budget, and because of the downturn in the oil and gas industry, parish workers had to be laid off. 

Parish President Larry Richard tells News 10 times are hard. The parish is collecting less and less in royalties from the oil and gas industry. That royalty fund has been used to pay for road maintenance in the parish. Without those funds coming in, the parish had to cut six jobs, and now several road maintenance employees are share duties in the drainage department. “The revenue that we are receiving or collecting from royalty is down pretty substantially. In fact, we are down 84 percent from what we were some 8 to 9 years ago,” said Richard. 

The parish used to collect $7 to $8 million a year in royalty funds. This year they will collect a little bit more than $900,000. To make ends meet and finalize the budget, six positions in the road maintenance department have been taken away. 

 “One of the things we don’t have in Iberia Parish that some other parishes have is dedicated funds for roads. Take a look at St. Martin Parish, they have a one cent dedicated tax for roads,” Richard said. “St. Landry Parish has a two cent dedicated tax for roads. We don’t have that here so we have been relying on the royalty fun for the longest and it’s just caught up with us.”

Several road maintenance employees are now sharing duties in the drainage department to make up for the jobs cut. “It’s a tough deal for us, but we have to make the adjustments we have to make to keep the parish moving forward,” says Richard. 

Richard says you will see construction and road projects next year throughout the parish.

There are multiple projects in the works that are being paid for by other means, like the federal government and the Acadiana Planning Commission.

The parish is now working on the final version of the budget, which must to be submitted by Dec. 12.