Nonprofits oppose cuts

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Jul 8, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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LAFAYETTE — Representatives of nonprofit groups spoke out Tuesday against a move to end city-parish government funding for organizations.

Council members William Theriot and Jared Bellard introduced an ordinance at Tuesday’s council meeting to shift money for nonprofit groups to the police and fire departments over the next three years.

The council is scheduled to vote on the measure July 21.

Comment from council members is generally reserved until a final vote, but one member suggested the council consider increasing funding for nonprofits rather than cutting it.

“To be honest with you, we may be going in the wrong direction,” Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux said.

The figure budgeted this fiscal year for nonprofits is $452,000, which is spread among 23 groups, including the Festival International de Louisiana, the Lafayette Council of Aging, the Family Violence Intervention Program and the Acadiana Arts Council.

The social service groups and the arts groups each selected a spokesperson to address the council on Tuesday.

Maria Placer, director of the information and referral center 232-HELP/211, told council members the nonprofits meet critical needs in the community, including literacy training, Meals-on-Wheels programs for homebound senior citizens, and shelters for battered women and their children.

“Where are those calls going to go if you don’t have this agency. Are you going to take those calls? Are you going to provide the services we provide?” Placer said.

“You are going to have to deal with the problem, and it is growing all the time.”

Acadiana Arts Council Executive Director Gerd Wuestemann spoke for arts agencies, including the Acadiana Symphony and the Performing Arts Society of Acadiana.

He argued that funding for the groups is an investment in the local economy and that the organizations offer programs that residents would otherwise have to travel to larger cities to enjoy.

“For each dollar invested by city-parish government, we return $6 into the local economy,” Wuestemann said.