Earlier this week, Governor John Bel Edwards vetoed several capital improvement projects, a large percentage of them in Iberia Parish. Parish President M. Larry Richard said he is looking on the bright side.
Rather than focusing on what the parish won’t be able to do right now, Iberia Parish plans to focus on what is being funded by the state.
"I’m very pleased that we did receive the airport road access project in Iberia Parish for a total of almost 4.3 million dollars and also funds for the Robert B. Green Veterans Building for a little over 300 thousand dollars," Richard said.
Richard said he understands several requested items were vetoed, but he says with 64 parishes in Louisiana, not everyone can receive all the funding they request.
"We are always going to request more than we know we are going to receive, and we get with our delegation and tell them our priority. And this particular time, we submitted 11 things we needed, so I got with the senators and the state representatives and talked about what we wanted to be a priority," Richard said.
Road infrastructure and sewage repair were among the line items vetoed. Richard said the parish is now looking for new avenues to fund those projects. One avenue being a dedicated tax for road infrastructure.
"I got here in 2016, and I thought that we were moving forward with the airport access road, but there were some things we hadn’t done, and it didn’t get funded the first year, but it’s funded now, so I am very thankful. I’m honored, and I’m thankful for our delegation. I’m pleased with that the governor did give us the money to fund these projects. We are going to move forward trying to move Iberia Parish forward," Richard said.
