DeSoto Parish Police Jury approves 2025 budgets for airport, animal services, OCS, rental assistance and sales-tax transfers

DeSoto Parish Police Jury members approved a set of 2025 fund budgets during a workshop meeting where staff presented revenue assumptions, expense projections and planned transfers.

Speaker 4, who presented multiple fund budgets, told jurors the airport fund had a projected beginning balance spoken as "$4,000,247,262," with proposed 2025 revenues of about $928,004.25 and expenditures near $1,000,163.09, producing a net decrease and an estimated 2025 ending balance of $4,011,007.84. Speaker 4 said some airport repairs will be paid in 2025 even though related insurance proceeds were recorded this year. "We had $73,000 that we received for insurance from the May storm," Speaker 4 said, describing coding of receipts to miscellaneous revenue.

The jurors voted to approve the airport fund budget after Q&A. Speaker 2 called the motion and announced the measure passed.

On animal services, Speaker 4 presented a 2025 beginning balance of $37,677, projected revenues of $38,500 and total expenditures of $636,005.81; the presenter proposed a $562,000 transfer from the general fund, a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment plus step increases for staff and a capital outlay that includes a replacement crew cab estimated near $56,000. Speaker 4 said the department received a $100,000 grant and pharmaceutical donations recorded as approximately $112,000. Jurors discussed the incinerator and generator maintenance; Speaker 3 reported the incinerator has required two service calls this year. The animal services budget was approved by vote.

The Office of Community Services (OCS) budget was presented with a corrected 2025 beginning balance of $101,008.45, projected revenues of $1,569,002.39 and proposed expenditures of $1,787,993; the presenter proposed a $120,000 transfer from the general fund to cover program-ineligible costs and a projected ending balance of $3,091. Speaker 4 said weatherization funding sources are shifting: DHHS funding for weatherization was shown declining from about $639,005.36 this year to $383,005.39 for 2025 while new bipartisan infrastructure funding is expected to cover additional weatherization activity. "Weatherization is actually now four different sources," Speaker 4 said. The jurors approved the OCS budget.

Speaker 4 also described the rental assistance (Section 8 voucher) fund as a largely pass-through, federally funded account with projected 2025 revenues of about $1,050,001.76 and an estimated ending fund balance of $35,008.35; that fund, too, was approved.

In a separate presentation on the sales tax fund, Speaker 4 said auditors advised recognizing revenue more conservatively and presented a sales-tax estimate of roughly $14.9 million for 2025. The presenter laid out a distribution plan that allocates 50% to roads, 15% to solid waste, 10% to the jail and 25% to the library after administrative and tax-commission fees are removed. The body approved the sales-tax fund transfers.

Votes at a glance

- Airport fund budget — Motion to approve (mover: Speaker 5 as stated in meeting), second: Speaker 1; outcome: approved. - Animal services budget — Motion to approve (mover: Speaker 4), second: Speaker 5; outcome: approved. - Office of Community Services budget — Motion to approve (mover: Speaker 2 as recorded), second: Speaker 5; outcome: approved. - Rental assistance fund budget — Motion to approve (mover: Richard Fuller as stated), second: Speaker 5; outcome: approved. - Sales tax fund and transfers — Motion to approve (mover: Speaker 5), second: Speaker 5; outcome: approved.

Speaker 2 closed the meeting after jurors selected tentative dates for follow-up budget work to align public hearings and the December meeting.

Next steps: staff will finalize corrected budget sheets for 2025 and present the capital outlay and department-specific line items at upcoming budget sessions and the public hearing schedule.