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Despite BREC spending thousands of dollars in look-how-great-we-are TV commercials, voters on Nov. 5 should deliver a harsh but necessary truth: “We aren’t fools, and we’re not buying their gold hype.”
It is sad that it has come to this. Parks and recreation are essential to our quality of life in East Baton Rouge Parish. But the facts the publicity machine doesn’t want you to know demand prudent taxpayers force BREC to get its financial and operational houses in order before approving millions in tax dollars.
Not mentioned in the commercials: On June 6, when BREC finally filed its 2021 audit—that’s right, 2021—with the legislative auditor, the organization was so far behind with its submissions that it was just 25 days away from triggering a hearing by the state’s Fiscal Review Committee. Revised Statute 39:1351 says the failure to provide an audit, as required by law, “to the Legislative Auditor for a period of three consecutive years shall automatically remove a political subdivision from being considered financially stable and place them into financially at-risk status.”
Had the hearing been held and with a unanimous vote, an expert would have been chosen to take over BREC’s fiscal operations. An order by the attorney general would then be filed with the 19th Judicial Court for final approval. Does that sound like a gold-worthy performance?
The three-year-late audit, released Monday, shows 2021 revenues of $84 million, with $70 million coming from ad valorem taxes. However, the legislative audit notes multiple findings of material weaknesses and significant deficiencies.
Another inconvenient truth: An agency filing an audit just one year late is placed on a “non-compliance list” with the state treasurer and is prohibited from receiving state appropriations. This designation of incompetence has prevented BREC from receiving $679,000 and counting. The cash is sitting idle in a state treasurer’s account. A BREC commissioner tells me there is also “gold” from the federal government that can’t be spent due to the same audit restrictions.
Our state and federal governments are telling BREC no, yet it expects parish voters to say yes? Really?
BREC is a “fool’s gold” operation.
Other questions come to mind: 1) Does BREC expect us to vote without first seeing the 2022 and ’23 audits; 2) Why did BREC leadership allow the agency to come so close to a possible state takeover and not reveal it; 3) Why hasn’t BREC—the parish’s largest property owner and operating nearly seven times as many parks as Austin—sold some of its land, putting it into commerce and generating revenue for the agency and economic growth for the area; and 4) Why wasn’t BREC more forthcoming in its gold-medal-winning application, failing to mention its zoo had just lost its accreditation and the agency was behind in filing its financial audits?
Read McCollister’s full column, and send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
