Perhaps it should not surprise that the most secretive local government in northwest Louisiana, the Port of Caddo-Bossier, has been involved some double-secret moves, if not backed by misinformation whether intentionally deceptive, by officials in area local governments.
The Port was established over 60 years ago to govern commerce and traffic as a port. Practically speaking, this means it builds infrastructure around land it leases to tenants. It is governed by a commission of nine appointees, political insiders all, by Shreveport, Bossier City, Caddo Parish, and Bossier City. It rakes in the statutory maximum of 2.5 mills of property tax from residents in those parishes. That’s good enough to gather over $7 million annually and to acquire assets of over $200 million while on the hook for $58 million in debt (2023 numbers; those for 2024 were presented at today’s meeting). (That debt will increase, perhaps substantially, as at its April meeting besides officially levying the property tax for 2025 it also authorized up to $750 million in new debt issuance.)
But statute also gives it enormous powers over what is defined as the “port area” – Bossier and Caddo Parishes in their entirety – and protects it from interference from any other local government. Following a 2021 law that added that and extensively expanded its powers, that gives it pretty free run to do whatever, at whatever cost. For example, it snookered Bossier City into giving it potentially a free waterworks that, unless some unlikely assumptions transpire, will be a net cost to Bossier Citians. It also has the power to expand through expropriation unhindered by any other local government, and, as an economic development entity, to make deals out of view of taxpayers.
This hasn’t sat well with Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, whose HB 480 seeks to have the Port divulge the tax abatements it can authorize. Under current law, all taxing entities in both parishes may end up having revenues stripped from them without them finding out until after the fact and without their consent. For example, Bossier City and Parish recently welcomed aboard the Chasin’ Aces golf complex. But it was the Port that set up that deal, in 2022 promising the outfit a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) arrangement and $25 million in debt issuance – and as the Port can issue such bonds tax exempt, it can pass that along as part of a deal.
HB 480 would do one simple thing: inform the three major taxing entities in each parish (parish, school district, sheriff) how much they would lose in abatements in a pending PILOT deal and give them power over whether to approve the deal. In that sense, it is hardly dissimilar from the way the Industrial Tax Exemption Program worked until recently, where local governments had a veto power over whether the state could exempt collection of their property taxes as part of an abatement it could issue.
In fact, you might think local governments would be all onboard with this expanded power. Think again: in recent weeks Democrat Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn, Shreveport through its GOP Mayor Tom Arceneaux and joined by Bossier City’s GOP Mayor Tommy Chandler, the Caddo Parish Commission, the Bossier Parish Police Jury, and Bossier and Caddo Parish schools each sent a letter – virtually identical in form, coordinated by the Port but whose commissioners never have taken any official action regarding to bill – saying they opposed the bill, citing that would put the Port at a competitive disadvantage for negotiations in economic development.
Yet that environment seemed perfectly acceptable under the old ITEP rules, an inconvenient fact that points to the Port’s real but hidden agenda: it doesn’t want its band of electorally-unaccountable commissioners, largely led by their noses by the highest-paid (with benefits, about $450,000 annually) local government official in the region, Port Executive Director Eric England, to have their wings clipped on deals by other local governments. And the opacity of this whole episode doesn’t stop there.
Two of the letters came from the mayors, who while their cities aren’t part of the bill still felt compelled to respond maybe as their cities appoint commissioners, although if something like this must happen it would seem more appropriate that their respective city councils had passed resolutions as those are the governing authorities who make the actual appointment. The other executive who responded, Whitehorn, of course is his own governing authority. And, interestingly, apparently Republican Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington didn’t send such a letter, although Bossier Parish Administrator Ken Ward said he had.
The Parish Commission did pass such a resolution, although with four of five Republicans opposed (all but Jean-Paul Young). By contrast, the Police Jury passed it along unanimously and retroactively, as Ward already had sent in the letter. He also misstated the bill as one that would affect every deal the Port made and as a repeat from last year (the only bill on this subject filed by McCormick in 2024 applied just to two Caddo fire districts and would have removed the Port’s override authority over all other governments). At that time, Republican Juror Philip Rodgers repeated the canard about secrecy in negotiation.
But neither school board ever passed such a resolution, as confirmed by a review of agendas and minutes. Instead, Caddo Superintendent Keith Burton and Bossier Superintendent Jason Rowland arrogated their boards’ powers and sent one each on their own, whether a majority of either board actually approved.
The bill, which was pulled from consideration today, remains alive but likely must be dealt with by next week in order for it to have a chance to make it into law. With the exception of the Republicans who voted against it on the Commission, most area elected officials appear clueless concerning what it’s all about – and that’s perhaps by design by both Port officials and some government chief executives – behaving like sheep being herded in the desired direction by those really on the political inside. In other words, nothing new in area politics.
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