Bossier 2025-26 deficit spending worrisome

A trend that developed in Bossier Parish this year of deteriorating finances looks to accelerate in 2026, according to preliminary budget documents that the Police Jury will discuss at its next meeting, which should send a warning to jurors and the public.

In October, the Jury held its required public hearing on the budget, with passage scheduled to occur at its first December meeting. As over a month-and-a-half has passed since then, numbers may have changed from what was forecast to be the anticipated changes, but they likely are close enough.

When reviewing what by accounting standards are considered to be the major funds of the parish, which combined comprised in 2024 about three-quarters of all revenues deposited, that year was pretty decent. These funds after expensed items and transfers finished $11.7 million in the black, and although the dozen or so minor funds all together had expenditures doubling up their assigned revenues, the parish still overall was $4.7 million to the good.

That seems unlikely in 2025. Projections are that the major funds not associated with water and sewerage – General, Highway, Library, Corrections, and Capital Improvement – including transfers in and out will end the year $7.7 million in the hole. The bottom then really drops out according to the 2026 budget, estimated to have these five funds depleted by just about $15 million dollars. Worse, excluding the water and sewerage enterprise funds which are supposed to be kept insulated from others, the remaining funds also go $6.5 million into the red.

To put this into perspective, at the start of 2025 the parish was just shy of $100 million in reserves across all non-enterprise funds. It’s projected at the end of 2026 to have fallen a stunning $37.6 million in just two years, or 38 percent.

Granted, a portion of this represents emptying out of one-time funds. Some was the liquidation of bond issues and others came from ending of federal government largesse. The winding down of American Rescue Plan Act dollars sent nearly $14.5 million out the door this year and a pittance supposedly next year. Still, the major funds will have dropped $22.7 million over two years by these estimates, leaving just a combined $30.5 million in balances – an incredible 43 percent fall.

This pace clearly is unsustainable. It’s not so much that costs are going up. The net total change in operating requests, which includes gifts to nongovernmental organizations, was just $441,000 more, or four percent. The main driver there was four percent salary hikes given to many employees including in related units such as the 26^th District Court. There was greater increased capital outlay, yet this diminishes the future cost hit as those aren’t recurring.

More worrisome, revenue from all non-enterprise sources dropped $1.5 million. Reviewing operating budgets, the General Fund falls 1 percent predicted end of 2025 to budgeted 2026, Library falls 5 percent, Corrections is flat, and Capital Improvement (which also funds some capital outlay) drops 6 percent. All these derive their revenues in the main from property and sales taxes.

Much of this flies under the public’s radar because the Jury gives out info like an eyedropper. None of this was available on the Internet and had to be requested. And of the budget hearing itself, there’s no other record that a budget spreadsheet, for it was transmitted by Zoom and not archived, so unless someone attended it and has a crack memory recalling conversations about what adjustments seemed in the offing, it went unnoticed by anybody outside of the corridors of the courthouse. No media sources even covered it.

You could argue that perhaps the parish has too much in reserves and so some deficit spending temporarily might not be a bad idea. However, reviewing operating revenues and expenditures show at least for next year each will go in the wrong direction. If not for next year’s spending plan, 2027 needs to show one or both of higher revenues or reduced expenditures – and tax increases to accomplish one leg of this isn’t the way to go – or the parish will be in real, maybe irreversible, fiscal trouble.