Mayor, city council considering several options

The end of the year is right around the corner, and like all good administrators, Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux is taking a long, hard look at the budget heading into next year.

Arceneaux said the city is reconsidering several things in the budget after having to take another look at projected sales tax revenue.

“We had originally forecast about a 2.5 percent gain in sales tax,” Arceneaux said. “But as our sales tax revenues came in, we decided that was not a wise forecast.

So we’re basically forecasting flat, which means money we had anticipated appropriating for the additional sales tax we will not be asking the council to appropriate. That amounted in some recommendations — a little over 1% — to reduce the general fund budget by about $4 million.”

Those adjustments have prompted the mayor and the Shreveport City Council to consider several options.

“At the budget sessions last week, the council began discussing things that we had put on the table,” the mayor said. “Things like some kind of public safety fee that would go on the water bill. So we will be exploring that. We probably will explore that during the budget season, but probably not propose that or decide where to go with that until after the first of the year.”

While officials are examining ways to replace revenue, they also must consider all the expenses in the budget. Arceneaux said an option like the public safety fee would limit potential cuts.

“The biggest area of need that is affected by the additional cuts is fire and police equipment,” he said. “This would perhaps fund that.”

Arceneaux said he and the council also are looking at another significant budget issue that impacts the city.

“The council also discussed potential pay increases for fire and police,” Arceneaux said. “That always engenders discussions about other city employees. Our current budget does not provide any general cost of living increase for our employees, except for what is required for fire and police under state law.”

Arceneaux also had to watch developments in the Louisiana Legislature’s Special Session on tax reform. As the session moved toward its conclusion, the mayor was in regular contact with local lawmakers.

“I talked with a legislator this morning, Arceneaux said Nov. 19. “It appears to me that things are going to go OK for us, both municipalities generally and the city of Shreveport specifically. That is still very much in a state of flux.”

Two items that contributed to their flux were the potential loss of tax credits for historic preservation and film production.

“There is a move to reduce but preserve both the historic tax credits and the movie tax credits,” Arceneaux said last week. “The historic (preservation tax credit) is important to downtown development, and the movie tax credits are important in the movie industry.”

Arceneaux took a wait-and-see approach as the session was winding down.

“I am cautiously optimistic that local governments generally and the city of Shreveport specifically are going to come out OK,” he said. “Perhaps not as wonderful as we would like, but a plausible and passable situation.”

In other financial news, the mayor was pleased that the city council advanced the sale of bonds to fund capital improvement projects across the city and a new Shreveport Police headquarters.

“Obviously, we are very pleased that the council moved forward with the sale of the bonds,” he said. “They are working on that. I am not sure exactly when that will take place, but we will have money to start projects next year, and that’s very healthy.”

Arceneaux said the city is working with the architect on the police headquarters project to keep it within the approved budget.

“We have been meeting with the architect to pull back the scale of that project to fit it within the money that was approved by the voters,” Arceneaux said. “What we thought we might like to have will not fit the budget that was passed by the voters.”