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Ascension Parish Council adopts 2026 budget after targeted amendments
Summary
The Ascension Parish Council on Nov. 20 adopted the 2026 operating and capital budgets as amended, approving detailed transfers among economic-development districts, correcting prior grant allocations, and establishing departmental changes. Councilors raised questions about franchise fees, mental-health fund corrections and project management staffing.
The Ascension Parish Council voted Nov. 20 to adopt the parish’s 2026 operating and capital budgets after approving a set of staff-proposed amendments.
Council leaders and finance staff said the amended package accounted for updated assessments and sales-tax receipts that feed two economic-development districts and corrected prior entries in the Council on Aging and Lamar Dixon accounts. Finance staff summarized the numbers included in the ordinance: proposed 2026 operating revenues of $185,669,500 plus a required fund balance of $2,122,200 for a total of $187,791,700 and operating expenditures of $163,060,200; capital budget figures were presented separately and the combined total budget equals $325,983,200 with interfund transfers totaling $105,236,500.
Dawn (budget staff) told the council the amendments establish transfers to the Riverplex Mega Park and the Highway 30 Industrial Corridor Economic Development Districts based on incremental ad valorem and sales-tax revenues above a 2021 baseline, reversing and reallocating funds so each district’s incremental receipts are captured properly.
Council members pressed staff for clarifications about several line items. Councilman Hillensbeck asked about a new "project management" department; staff said the parish removed project managers from finance and created a separate department to manage growing capital workloads. Hillensbeck also asked about earlier transfers that had temporarily placed mental-health fund revenues into a park construction account; staff said those transfers were reversed after legal review showed the funds were restricted to health uses.
The package also corrected a previously overstated grant figure for Lamar Dixon (reduced to $500,000) and adjusted franchise-fee accounting related to the parish’s sewer sale to NWI, with those fees routed to the recreation fund as previously approved by ordinance or resolution.
After discussion, Councilman Hillensbeck moved to adopt the budget as amended; the motion carried with no recorded objections and the council closed the public hearing and approved the appropriations.
What comes next: with the council’s adoption, department heads and the parish administration will move to implement the adjusted appropriations and begin project-specific procurement and reporting tied to the economic-development district transfers.
