City includes cost-of-living increase for fire, police

It’s the time of year when we all are busy making lists and checking them twice. But we also are looking ahead to 2025, making plans for what the new year holds.

The same is true for the city of Shreveport.

Mayor Tom Arceneaux and the City Council aim to have the 2025 city budget in place by the end of this week.

“So far, we have minimal amendments proposed by the council,” Arceneaux said last week ahead of this week’s council meeting. “But we anticipate passing the budget pretty much as proposed on Tuesday.”

Arceneaux said the city found somewhat good news recently that played a role in the budgeting process.

“For the month of October, we had a 5 percent increase in our sales taxes — 4.9, to be precise — which was the first time we’ve has a significant increase year over year — that’s ’24 over ’23,” Arceneaux said. “It’s not trend, but it was good news.

That will help us with our year-end balance for 2024, which will help us for 2025.”

That made it easier for the city to include a state-mandated 2% cost-of-living increase for police and fire employees.

“It does appear to me that we will be able to keep the police incentives,” Arceneaux said. “Mr. (Tom) Dark (chief administrative officer) has been poring over numbers very carefully, particularly for fire and police, They are our top priory in terms of making sure we maintain where they are and not fall back, and it appears we will be able to maintain where we are.”

The mayor said the state-mandated 2% raise was all the city could include, but he would like to do more.

“We continue to look for ways to improve public safety pay, but I don’t anticipate any of those happening before the end of the year,” he said.

The 2025 budget does not include raises for other city employees, Arceneaux said.

Arceneaux said he could not readily identify a cause for the sales tax collection increase in October, but is pleased with it.

“I am sure if somebody dug into the individual accounts, they would figure it out,” he said. “Something else that was encouraging about it is the motor vehicle sales tax were down a little, which means the other tax was up more than 4.9 percent, and that’s encouraging.”

The mayor added that it is too early to anticipate what it might mean to the budget.

“We will end up with a good year-end balance, which will carry us into 2025,” he said. “Obviously, it would be wonderful if we see a trend in the improvement of our sales taxes. We’ve been surprised at the flatness of the sales tax, but that continued for a while, so we have to assume that will continue into the future until we see a different trend develop.”

Shreveport sends property tax notices

Arceneaux also announced last week that property tax notices were sent beginning Dec. 5.

Taxpayers who receive tax invoices by mail should receive their notices this week. The notices also can be accessed online at www.shreveportla.gov/288/Proterty-Tax-Information.

Property tax payments for 2024 are due by Dec. 31. Payments mailed on or before Dec. 31 but received after that date are considered timely.

“The city regrets the unavoidable delay in sending tax notices,” the mayor said in a news release. “We appreciate the cooperation of our property taxpayers in dealing with the tardy notices.”

Residents are encouraged to monitor the official City of Shreveport website for updates regarding the status of property tax notices. For questions or concerns, contact the City of Shreveport Revenue Department at (318) 673-5585.