Author Archives: John Settle

LSU professor Dr. Loren Scott is renowned for his economic outlook reports on the Louisiana Economy. To many, Scott is “the Bible” for economic planners. And guess what? The recent report was not particularly favorable for Shreveport-Bossier. Actually, Caddo, Bossier, Webster, and Desoto parishes are in the Shreveport-Bossier Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Except for slight […]

Yep—I am voting on a tax. Actually a renewal. And yes, you can tell your friends, email this column to the world and put out in social media. On the Tuesday ballot—somewhere—is the Caddo Parish Commission’s Public Facilities and Recreation Renewal. It’s a .83 millage. In “dollar speak” it will cost me about 50 cents […]

On Wednesday mayoral candidate Steven Jackson announced his endorsement by the Working Families Party (WFP). George Soros and his Open Society Foundation have financed the WFP. The WFP is an outgrowth of the socialist New Party. The goal of this group is to push the Democratic party to the left. The WFP of New York […]

All candidates on the November 6 ballot were required to submit campaign financial reports to the Louisiana Ethics Administration on Monday of this week.   The reporting period is from September 28 through October 17.  These reports give major insight into the status of campaigns.   This is especially true in the Shreveport mayor’s race. […]

Yep, its true. The operating budget that Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler presented to the Shreveport City Council last week proposes more expenditures than estimated revenues. Technically the budget will not be in the red. Tyler intends to spend over $5.9 million of the anticipated December 31 operating reserves. That’s almost 60% of the expected reserves. […]

The Shreveport City Charter requires that the 2019 operating budget be adopted on December 11, 2018.   Mayor Tyler introduced her proposed budget at the Council meeting  on Tuesday.  The Council was briefed with an Executive Summary of the budget consisting of a Power Point presentation featuring 43 slides.   The 543 page budget is […]

There’s an old saying in politics that money does not vote. But money gets votes.   Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler’s recently released campaign finance reports show that her candidacy is not doing well, to put it mildly.   Couple that with a recently released poll, and its no surprise that Tyler has gone underground in […]

Yes, it IS big news. Actually, BIG BIG news. On January 1 of this year, Adrian Perkins was a virtual unknown to Shreveport voters. He was still a student at Harvard Law School. Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler had the highest name recognition of any elected official north of Baton Rouge. And she was a 3 […]

Yes, there have been many, many mayoral forums. Like 10, or maybe 11. And all the mayoral candidates are suffering from “forum fatigue.” But only 3 were televised. Tuesday at LSUS, Wednesday at Centenary College and Thursday at Southern University Shreveport. These forums allowed every voter in Shreveport to see the candidates, or almost all […]

It sounds simple. And in theory it is. But theory and reality rarely match up. Such is the case with the Lake Street railroad crossing. The goal is to re-open the railroad crossing between Spring Street and the Clyde Fant Parkway. This section has been blocked off since January 2015. The ordinance authorizing the temporary […]