University Avenue would get a makeover and rates charged by the city-owned utility service would rise under the administration's proposed budget for next year.

City-Parish Mayor-President Joel Robideaux introduced his budget Tuesday for the fiscal year that begins Nov. 1.

Council members, who can vote to amend the spending plan, are scheduled to review it line by line in a series of hearings scheduled to start next week and run through September.

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This is Robideaux's first budget since taking office in January, and there are few major changes as city-parish government prepares for a year in which sales tax revenue is expected to continue getting battered by the fallout from an ailing oil patch.

The budget includes no money for what has come to be an expected cost-of-living raise for city-parish government's roughly 2,300 employees, with the exception of a state-mandated 2 percent raise for firefighters.

New road and drainage projects in unincorporated areas of the parish are virtually non-existent because sales tax collections in rural areas have taken a particularly hard hit.

One of the few new projects in the budget is a $4.8 million initiative to add sidewalks and landscaping along University Avenue from Interstate 10 to just north of Cameron Street at Four Corners.

Robideaux identified improvements in that area as a top priority early on in his administration, saying it is a major gateway to the city that has long been neglected.

He said Tuesday the goal is "to appropriately welcome people to this great community that we live in."

The proposed budget also includes $820,000 for a sidewalk project downtown to improve wheelchair accessibility and bring the area into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

Perhaps the most noticeable change for city residents is a proposed increase in rates for electric, sewer and water services from the city-owned Lafayette Utilities System.

The increase for all the utility services combined would be roughly 9 percent and would be phased in over three years, said LUS Director Terry Huval.

He said the higher rates are needed to support a $232 million capital program, including new power plants, new substations and sewer plant expansions.

The proposed city-parish budget is $620 million, but much of that is accounted for by the utility system.

Much of the council's discussions over the coming weeks will focus on the roughly $113 million in the city and parish general funds and the $44 million capital budget.