Arceneaux laps challenger field in mayoral forums

If viewers learned anything from a Shreveport mayoral forum doubleheader broadcast earlier this week on different television stations sponsored by the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, it’s that the huge fundraising lead that Republican incumbent Tom Arceneaux has extends also to his knowledge of city affairs and to his program going forward in comparison to his opponents.

The pair of events started with one concentrating on economic development and then moving on the next night to the other’s focus on infrastructure. It quickly became clear that his challengers had particular mantras to which they would stick adding little else, no matter how vacuous or even fact-impaired these might be. The participants chosen likely are the only ones that have a chance to break into double-digit percentages of the vote.

The simplest candidate of all was Democrat Caddo Parish Commissioner Stormy Gage-Watts. Navigating through her word salad proved challenging. Over and over again she asserted that hiring a city planner and creating an online “dashboard” – which as Arceneaux pointed out the city had already, at least for capital projects – to track city spending were the big answers to what ails the city. She charged that certain neighborhoods were neglected compared to others, such as in street lighting, and that all seven Council districts needed equal treatment – interesting statements considering she apparently lives outside the city, not at the domicile inside the city accepted in her qualification.

Bossier Parish budget stays on unsustainable path

The 2027 budget for Bossier Parish looks better than the 2026 version in some ways, but similar warning signals still flash.

Entering the year, the Parish seemed set on some deficit spending. Operating budgets for the five major government funds – General, Highway, Library, Corrections, and Capital Improvement – then predicted combined $15 million more would be spent than came in, while the rest of the lesser funds was foreseen going $6.5 million in the red.

However, for 2027 the General, Library, and Corrections Funds are predicted to eat into reserves only slightly, and treading water when discounting transfers. The deficit of the other governmental funds came down a bit – some of that is structural for financing the 26^th Judicial District courts and the district attorney’s office – although expenses jumped almost 25 percent for the district attorney, which at the end of 2026 was forecast to have almost no reserves but as of the end of September actually was in the red nearly $300,000 and is expected to balloon to over a million dollars even with a million-dollar transfer into it.

LA must resume distasteful but necessary task

As unpleasant as it might be, the show must go on, in Texas, Tennessee, and Louisiana, in order to save lives.

Controversy has surrounded carrying out capital punishment as of late. In Tennessee, an execution by lethal injection went wrong, leaving the murderess alive but barely surviving. In Texas, a jihadist sentenced to death for killing over a dozen people at an army base in 2009 will face a firing squad in December that at present the federal government will live stream over the Internet.

 

The former incident has reinvigorated anti-death penalty advocates, whose strategy involves a public relations campaign to make it logistically more difficult to carry out executions so that these either don’t occur or become so convoluted in difficulty in being done correctly that this escalates to the point enough fail that then the judiciary backs the idea that all methods violate the Eighth Amendments stricture against cruel punishment.

LA congressional donation record no surprise

If anything, had Louisiana congressional candidates not pulled in record dollars of campaign donations that would have been unexpected.

In sum, this election cycle has produced the highest total ever given to candidacies, in aggregate $74 million. Yet this should surprise no one, because of several factors.

 First, start with this election cycle offering up two competitive House of Representatives races, a competitive Senate contest, and not having a presidential contest to siphon money from congressional contests. Races believed to be close suck in more money. The last time this many hotly-contested cropped up was in 2014, and inflation plus changes in some donation ceilings would encourage more giving. It also helps that two candidates, one in each of the hotly-contested House races, are willing to put considerable own-resources into their campaigns, as did one Senate contestant.

More trends argue for eliminating film tax credit

It’s time for Louisiana to stop swimming against the tide and use money thrown away on making movies for more important needs – especially as larger economic trends threaten to wither away the program.

Recently, New Orleans’ film office director and city councilors griped about how film production statewide but in the city particularly had taken a tumble. Years ago, a billion dollars a year was coming into the state in production costs, but now that has dropped to $185 million. This matters according to advocates of using government as a direct jobs creator as fewer jobs result from a dive in production value. Thus, they call for increasing the generosity of the state’s tax credit regime, which already is quite lucrative: 25 percent tax credit for all production costs and 10 percent more if an in-state screenplay and 5 percent more if outside the New Orleans area, and then 15 percent more on compensation for all Louisiana residents used plus 5 percent on special effects past $1 million. The maximum base is 40 percent.

Further, the credit is almost entirely refundable, meaning investors outside the state without Louisiana state income tax liability can reap all of these benefits, at the 88 percent level, meaning taxpayers pick up the tab. In a recent ranking of states, the state winds up sixth-best in generosity, and doesn’t have a higher showing only because it caps the amount of credits issued and paid per year at $125 million, something advocates for more largesse wish would revert back to the previous uncapped that also would speed up claims paid out.