Introduction

BGR’s Outlook on Jefferson series is intended to provide general oversight and monitoring
of Jefferson Parish government. This issue focuses on Jefferson Parish general government revenues and expenditures and the operating budget. BGR’s first report examining the parish council and its finances was issued in April 1997 and covered the 1997 adopted budget and actual expenditures through 1995. The parish’s adopted 1998 operating budget was discussed in a subsequent edition of the Outlook on Jefferson series.

The purpose of this report is to provide an updated overview of Jefferson Parish government and the parish’s fiscal outlook. It includes both a review of final general government revenues and expenditures between 1988 and 1997 as presented in the Parish’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), and an examination of the 1999 Jefferson Parish adopted operating budget.

Unlike “general government” budget data that are presented in the CAFR, the Parish’s projected “operating” revenues and expenditures contained in the annual operating budget documents include neither debt service funds nor the great majority of federal funds. Moreover, CAFR general government expenditures do not include revenues and expenditures from Enterprise Funds as do annual operating budgets. Enterprise Funds account for the fiscal operations of the Parish’s Consolidated Waterworks District No. 1 and the Consolidated Sewerage District No. 1. As proprietary funds, the cost of providing these government functions is financed through user charges.

These differences make comparisons between the two problematic, but reasonable assumptions can be made regarding trends in aggregate parish revenues and expenditures.