Council and redevelopment agency approve tentative budgets; RDA awards alleyway contract to Jay Wilkinson & Sons

Morgan City’s municipal building authority, redevelopment agency (RDA) and city council advanced tentative budgets for fiscal year 2025–26 on Thursday, and the RDA awarded a bid for a long‑planned alleyway/plaza project behind Commercial Street.

At the municipal building authority meeting the board adopted a tentative budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, and ending June 30, 2026 (resolution M25‑06). The board opened and closed a required public hearing and adopted the tentative budget with a voice vote.

The redevelopment agency discussed its tentative budget and a prioritized capital project: an alleyway/plaza behind Commercial Street intended to create a plaza, parking and a space for events and food trucks. RDA staff said the project budget includes a $650,000 appropriation in the RDA budget; of that amount staff identified $350,000 from park-impact fees and an additional planned draw from capital-improvement funds. Staff said reimbursements (including a $150,000 payment to a hotel developer) and prior property purchases mean the RDA’s total committed spending on the project will exceed the single‑year appropriation and will be managed across years.

On a separate motion the redevelopment agency accepted Jones & Associates’ recommendation and awarded the construction contract to Jay Wilkinson and Sons in the bid amount of $1,479,962.50. The motion passed with recorded council votes of Jeff (aye), Tony (aye), Eric (aye) and Dave (aye).

Later the city council considered the citywide tentative budget (resolution R25‑08) and set a public hearing for the final budget on June 24, 2025. City staff briefed council members on key revenue assumptions included in the tentative budget: modest property-tax projections, steady sales-tax estimates and a potential municipal-energy tax (MET) proposal included as an optional revenue source in the tentative budget that, if adopted later, would generate an estimated $300,000 and be used to fund capital-improvement transfers. Councilors discussed how that revenue source — a user tax on energy use — could be used to reduce reliance on property taxes and to fund a capital transfer for the plaza and other top-priority projects.

Council members voted to adopt the tentative budget and to schedule the June 24 public hearing for the fiscal-year final adoption. Several council bodies followed required procedures to open public hearings and record votes during the meeting sequence.