Mayor would like to buy new ambulances and patrol units

Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux and his administration are working with the city council to put the finishing touches on the city’s 2026 budget. Among the mayor’s top concerns is preserving the city’s 8 percent operating reserves.

Arceneaux conceded that the operating reserve is not an exciting topic of conversation, but it is necessary.

“The operating reserve is a boring topic, but it is a very important topic,” he said. “I do think people need to understand how important an 8 percent operating reserve is. That is something that I plan to protect.”

If the operating reserve falls below 8 percent, it could impact the city’s bond rating, which would cost the city more over the life of the bonds.

The issue came up recently as the mayor worked on some bonds already in motion.

“I was on calls with Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s about our bond rating,” Arceneaux said. “We are having to have some specific bonds rated. We are refunding about $190 million in water and sewer bonds to save about $10 million over the course of those bonds.

“They are very interested (in the operating reserve). They have noticed over time our general reserves including operating reserve, and they do not want it to go down. At Moody’s we have a BAA rating with a negative outlook, and we don’t want it to get any worse. If it gets worse, we have trouble getting insurance for the bonds. The insurance allows us to trade up a level in investment quality.”

Arceneaux said he provided the city council with information that indicated that if the city could not get insurance, it could cost as much as $29 million over the life of those general obligation bonds.

“It looks like, ‘Why don’t we just shave a little off of this?’” he said. “But shaving has a long-term expense.”

One thing the mayor is seeking in the budget is new equipment for the Shreveport Fire Department and the Shreveport Police Department.

Arceneaux’s plans include buying new ambulances and possibly a tanker truck for the fire department and new patrol units for the police department.

“That will involve a five-year certificate of indebtedness,” he said. “It will impact the budget, but it won’t take money out of the budget. It’ll be new funds. We will borrow those funds over five years and pay it off. It’ll give us a head start instead of having to pace those things out over a period of years. We will be able to invest in the equipment and get the equipment in here more quickly.”

It is an investment in public safety for the city, he said.

“We have been refurbishing and replacing the box on the chassis,” Arceneaux said of the current fleet of ambulances. “We really need to not be doing that. We have done as much of that as we can do. It’s time to invest in new medic units. The council agrees with that. They were raising those issues with the fire department.

Hopefully, we can make a big decision about that.”

He said the new police units will replace some units in the fleet but also expand the fleet.

“We want to add to the take-home vehicles,” Arceneaux said. “That is a public perception issue. Sometimes that perception deters crime. That’s what we want to do.”

Arceneaux and the city council will continue to work on the budget this week and next week.

“We have some other ideas in general operations that we haven’t gotten the full plan to discuss with council,” Arceneaux said. “We have been listening carefully to what the council has been saying and some of their ideas. We hope to be able to take some action on some of those items as we are working on those plans. Whatever we are going to do will be out right after Thanksgiving.”