Is Shreveport Facing a Fiscal Cliff?
💵What Does the Budget Picture Look Like?
💵What Budget Problems Are Ahead?
💵Spending Needs Shreveport Must Plan For
SHREVEPORT, LA - It looks like Shreveport is facing some serious budget hurdles ahead. Chief Administrative Officer Tom Dark has outline the overall budget picture for the City Council.
What Does the Budget Picture Look Like?
Dark says:
The total operating budget of just over $610 million, up about $31 million (5%) from the original 2024 budget. The General Fund budget of $309.4 million is about $26 million (9%) above the original 2024 budget. Almost all of that is from two sources – the $20 million transfer from the Water and Sewer Fund for the Rate Stabilization Account and about $3 million to account for us paying Police supplemental pay through our budget, instead of it being paid for the State.
The CAO says 2024 has been a "relatively good year for the General Fund, in that overall revenues and expenses were within a few hundred thousand dollars of being in balance. We also started 2024 with about $7.5 million more than we had budgeted."
What Budget Problems Are Ahead?
The real problem facing Shreveport is declining says tax revenues. The city budgeted for more than $170 million, but the actual number will fall about $7 million short of that. For this year, the impact will not be as drastic. But Dark says "it will have a large impact in 2025."
He says "there is no way to project any sales tax growth for 2025 – at least until we see a consistent upturn that is not there now."
Dark told the council he is planning now to "make additional budget reductions in the General Fund and the Funds (MPC, Retained Risk, SporTran and Solid Waste) that receive a large amount of General Fund dollars. We have started identifying recommendations for these reductions and hope to have them to you in early November."
Spending Needs Shreveport Must Plan For
The city is trying to maintain a reserve of close to 8%, but some of the additional fund balance will likely have to be used to to continue efforts to get rid of blighted properties and continue mowing and litter cleanup across the city. Money will also need to be used for major building maintenance in the SPAR budget.
But Dark also cautioned the Council that we don't yet know how much money will be needed to relocate police employees from the Texas Street building to temporary facilities.
Largest Employers in Northwest Louisiana