Shreveport mayor announces bond issue aimed at addressing city's capital needs

Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux held a news conference Thursday, Aug. 3, to announce a General Obligation bond issue election for capital improvements in the city.

"It has become clear to me that the city has significant capital needs that cannot be addressed within our regular operating budgets or American Recovery (ARP) funds," Arceneaux said. "A well-planned, realistic bond issue could meet many of those needs."

This bond proposal will seek to involve a committee of 19 citizens selected by the Shreveport City Council and Arceneaux. The committee will be chaired by retired LSU chancellor Dr. Larry Clark. Additionally, representatives of city departments will serve on the Technical Advisory Committee, and the two committees will work in tandem to resolve city-wide issues. This advisory committee will be led by Chief Administrative Officer Tom Dark.

Arceneaux predicts there will be potentially more than $100 million allocated to these projects spread out over time, depending on the millages. This bond proposition will require some additional commitment from the taxpayers.

The Technical Advisory committee will hold public meetings to receive input on possible bond issue projects. Then citizens and council members will submit suggested projects based on the needs they see within their neighborhoods.

"I believe that we will have the best chance of success if the voters are presented with a menu of choices for their approval," Arceneaux said. "Areas like public safety, streets and drainage, parks, water and sewer should be presented as separate propositions, allowing the voters to make choices about the worth of each categories projects. The committee will determine if other categories or projects should also be included in the proposal."

The city council will have the final authority to call an election on the matter and what to include in the call for the election.

Arceneaux has requested each city council member give him two chosen committee member names by Friday, Aug. 11. He will then choose his five members to help "balance out" the committee.

"Any community that wants to advance and grow has got to consider its infrastructure needs and then keep up with those infrastructure needs," Arceneaux said. "It's been quite some time since we had a significant bond issue that received passage from the citizens of Shreveport. That's a long time between investments in infrastructure, so I think now is the time for us to do that.

"Almost any bond issue that we pass at this stage is going to increase property taxes. We think it's going to be a very modest increase. My guess is we will be well below the maximum. That maximum that I think we had back in the mid-2000s was about 30 mils for debt service. That has now dwindled down to a little over 11 mils. What you hope to do as a community is you would hope to fill in those gaps and have kind of a continuous investment in infrastructure. The city has not been able to do that, and so now it's time for us to kind of step up to the plate and decide that we want to move these projects forward for the betterment of our city."

According to Arceneaux, the goal is to have the package put together during November so that the council can vote on it. The hope is that the council will pass the legislation and call the election and then some kind of resolution or commitment that these projects will be done within the millages.

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"If we love our city, then we also have to make some commitments," Arceneaux said. "And this is an opportunity for people to commit to Shreveport and to make us an even better city than we already have."

Meredith G. White is the arts and culture reporter for the Shreveport Times. You can find her on Facebook as Meredith G. White, on Instagram and Twitter as @meredithgwhite, and email her at mgwhite@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Shreveport mayor announces bond issue aimed at addressing city's capital needs