Port Commission Schedules Public Hearing on Millage Rate Increases

The Caddo-Bossier Port Commission is looking for public input on a potential millage rate increase.

According to a news release, the port is considering levying additional millage rates without further voter approval and adopting the adjusted millage rates after reassessment and rolling forward to rates not to exceed the prior year's maximum.

The estimated amount of tax revenues to be collected in the next year from the increased millage is $6,831,826 in Caddo Parish, and $2,445,806 in Bossier Parish. The increase in taxes is expected to be close to $110,000 in Caddo and over $61,000 in Bossier.

The public can comment at the port's Board of Commissioners meeting, which takes place at the Regional Commerce Center Thursday, August 18, at 4:30 p.m.

Local Attorney John Settle has the following to say about the possible increase:

If all the public relations media releases by the Port of Caddo Bossier are to be swallowed, then one would think the Port is a cross between Fort Knox and its gold treasury reserves and the Department of Currency that prints greenbacks by the millions. Backed by a high dollar media campaign funded by Port tenants, the construction industry who builds at the port and even AEP/SWEPCO, Caddo and Bossier voters approved on April 9 of this year a twenty five year renewal of a 2.5 mil ad valorem tax that was on the books for another two years—expiring in 2018.

Before the vote questions were raised by concerned citizens over many aspects of the Port’s operations, ranging from its fourteen million dollar headquarters building to to its excessive payroll: its 20 employees draw almost two million dollars per year with Executive Director Eric England being paid in excess of two hundred seventy five thousand dollars per year. Additionally Port officials would not explain their justification for purchasing from a former Port Commissioner a $2.64 million dollar tract that can not be used for Port operations because of zoning; nor would they explain setting the tax renewal on a separate election date from a presidential primary on March 5 or the presidential election on November 8.

And although Port Commissioners have steadfastly claimed for years that the streets were paved with gold at the sprawling port facility on Highway 1, a recent budget committee meeting spilled the milk on that dream in a big time way. The short version recited by England is that revenues from the Port’s heydays in 2014 to date had fallen approximately forty percent, while labor costs had grown from 19 percent of 2014 operation income to thirty one percent in 2016. Income from Port operations in 2104 was approximately eight hundred fifty thousand dollars; England projected 2106 operational income to be approximately five hundred thousand dollars—in round dollars a decline of three hundred fifty thousand dollars.

The rest of Settle's article can be found in the June 22-July 5 edition of The Forum.