Letter from the Editor

On April 12th, Bossier City Councilman-at-Large and current Council President Chris Smith asked via his public Facebook page, “Bossier City would be better if ____________”. He then promised to read every response. The comments were rife with ideas ranging from practical to pipe dreams.

This author, however, has pondered this exact question for months now, and began working on the data necessary to provide a reasonable, balanced response from a fiscally conservative standpoint. Councilman Smith’s post was just the motivation needed to complete these thoughts. Thanks, Chris.

Without further ado:

Bossier City would be better if it stopped acting like a city that has been blessed with easy money and started governing like a city that has to earn durable growth.

Right now, Bossier has real strengths, but too much of its identity still rests on two external pillars it does not fully control: Barksdale Air Force Base and gaming.

In the city’s own 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Finance Director Angela H. Williamson describes Barksdale as “by far, the most significant employment generator in the area,” with nearly 9,000 jobs, more than $570 million in payroll, and total spending approaching $719 million.

The same report also says riverboat gaming has been part of Bossier’s identity since 1994, notes that analysts considered the market oversaturated, and points to the 2020 Diamond Jacks closure before Live! opened in 2025. That is the core problem. Bossier has assets, but too much of its economic psychology is still built around dependence rather than diversification. (Angela H. Williamson, City of Bossier City 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report)

The tax side tells the same story. Bossier City residents and businesses inside city limits face a 5.0% local sales tax, which becomes 10.0% including state tax, according to the city-parish Sales and Use Tax Division’s 2025 rate chart. At the same time, Williamson’s report shows how heavily Bossier has already assigned slices of that sales tax to specific functions: the original one-cent tax helps fund operations and public safety, the 1982 half-cent supports pension liabilities and city salaries, the 1987 half-cent supports bond debt and other authorized purposes, and the 1991 half-cent funds fire stations, the jail, municipal buildings, streets, drainage, and personnel.

In 2024, the city reported $64.6 million in sales taxes available against debt-service requirements. So the issue is not merely whether Bossier taxes enough. The issue is whether taxpayers can clearly see that high local consumption taxes are being converted into visible productivity, infrastructure, and wealth creation instead of into a permanent operating habit. (Bossier City-Parish Sales and Use Tax Division, 2025 Rate Chart; Angela H. Williamson, 2024 ACFR)

That is why comparisons to successful East Texas cities matter. Tyler, TX does not have Bossier’s casino base, and it does not lean on a military installation as its defining employer. Instead, Tyler has built a clearer public finance culture around infrastructure and pay-as-you-go capital.

On the city’s official Half Cent Sales Tax page, Tyler says its 0.5% half-cent sales tax generates about $20 million annually for capital projects and has allowed the city to pay cash for drainage, streets, public safety, and facility improvements rather than relying on general obligation bonds.

Then, in Julie Goodgame’s city article, “Tyler adopts 2025 budget; Prioritizes $91.4 million for water, sewer, public safety and Downtown improvements,” Tyler says it devoted $50 million to water and sewer capital and $41.4 million to traffic signals, street reconstruction, drainage, and downtown square redevelopment, while also highlighting a comparatively low property-tax posture. That is what strategic tax usage looks like. The public can see the theory of the city. It is not “we have a casino and a lucky location.” It is “we convert revenue into systems that raise long-run value.”

Longview offers a second lesson. It is not a casino town, and it is not a military-base town. Its case is not that Longview is perfect. Its case is that Longview has assembled a more diversified employment mix in health care, manufacturing, logistics, and regional commerce. In Longview’s 2024 ACFR, the city notes that it serves as a regional commerce, healthcare, and employment hub drawing from surrounding counties, and that principal employers include medical centers and public-sector institutions.

In Andrew Cross’s HUD profile, “Longview, Texas Housing Market Profile,” the Longview metro had about 101,000 nonfarm jobs in the third quarter of 2024, with gains led by education and health services and manufacturing, and with the manufacturing sector representing more than 12 percent of total nonfarm payrolls, above state and national shares. Cross also notes Eastman Chemical’s $1.2 billion expansion with at least 200 jobs expected by 2027. That is a far more resilient economic structure than one overly reliant on gaming traffic and federal defense payroll.

So the blank should be filled this way:

Bossier City would be better if it deliberately shifted from a consumption-and-dependence economy to a production-and-place economy.

That means five things at once.

First, Bossier has to treat Barksdale as a platform, not a crutch. Williamson’s report is correct that Barksdale is an enormous asset, and Bossier’s cyber corridor around the base has produced meaningful development, including the Cyber Innovation Center, Louisiana Tech’s presence, and defense-related employers such as GDIT. But a city that depends too much on one dominant employer is always one federal policy change, one mission realignment, or one procurement cycle away from vulnerability.

The right move is not to downplay Barksdale. It is to use Barksdale to recruit adjacent private-sector industries: cybersecurity, simulation and training, avionics support, unmanned systems, logistics software, defense contracting back office, veteran-owned technical firms, and data infrastructure. In other words, Bossier should be asking: how do we turn military presence into civilian export capacity? Williamson’s report already gives the skeleton of that argument through the cyber-park narrative. The city just needs to make it the organizing doctrine of economic development instead of a side story.

Second, Bossier needs to stop treating gaming revenue as civic destiny. Williamson’s report admits both the economic contribution of gaming and the historical saturation issue. That should be read as a warning. Casinos can help fund amenities and tourism, but they are not a complete development model. They generate activity, but not necessarily broad-based wealth formation. They can fill hotel rooms and restaurant seats, but they do not automatically produce the sort of diversified employer base that can absorb shocks or steadily lift wages across multiple skill levels. Even the city’s principal-employer table shows that casino employment matters, but Barksdale is vastly larger, and some casino employment has declined compared with a decade ago. If Bossier wants to grow up economically, gaming must move from being a pillar of identity to being a taxable entertainment segment within a broader strategy.

Third, Bossier must rebuild public trust around tax usage. A city with a 10% combined sales-tax rate inside city limits has no business being vague about outcomes. The public should be able to see, line by line, what each dedicated tax stream produced: how many lane-miles improved, how many drainage choke points removed, how many water and sewer upgrades completed, how much private capital leveraged, how many acres assembled for development, how many net new payroll jobs created, and how much assessed value added.

Tyler’s official public messaging is disciplined on this point. Its half-cent sales tax is tied to named categories and annual project lists. Bossier should do the same, but more aggressively. It should create a public “taxpayer return dashboard” that links every dedicated sales-tax bucket and gaming-supported capital fund to visible, map-based deliverables. Taxpayers do not resent taxes nearly as much as they resent opacity.

Fourth, Bossier has to become more intentional about land use and geography. Williamson’s report notes a structural reality that many people ignore: east-west growth is constrained by the base and the Red River, while commercial and residential growth have trended northward and along Airline and Benton. That means Bossier cannot simply sprawl its way into prosperity. It needs node-based development. The East Bank District, downtown reinvestment, cyber corridor, and key retail corridors should be treated as separate but linked economic zones, each with a distinct role. East Bank should be the small-business, restaurant, entertainment, housing, and placemaking district. The cyber corridor should be the high-wage office and research district. North Bossier should be disciplined suburban commercial growth with infrastructure sequencing, not random strip expansion. South Bossier should be logistics, redevelopment, and destination recreation where it makes financial sense. Cities become mediocre when every area tries to be everything.

Fifth, Bossier must think in terms of industry mix, not ribbon cuttings. One of the easiest ways for a city to fool itself is to confuse activity with development. A splashy announcement can matter. A new entertainment venue can matter, such as the $25 million Chasing Aces that opened last year. This project is a good example of a project that can strengthen the leisure and visitor economy. But that is only one layer.

Long-run prosperity comes from stacking sectors that produce income in different ways: defense-adjacent technology, logistics and distribution, health care, skilled trades, construction services, advanced manufacturing, education, hospitality, and locally owned small business. Bossier should still welcome destination projects. It just cannot let them substitute for building a deeper economic engine.

A five-year plan for Bossier City

Year 1: Audit, disclose, and reset priorities.
Bossier should begin with a hard public audit of economic dependence and tax deployment. Not a ceremonial study. A real one. Break out what share of local economic strength depends on Barksdale, gaming, retail leakage capture, and organic private-sector growth. Then publish a tax-usage scorecard showing how dedicated sales taxes and riverboat-related funds were actually used. Williamson’s ACFR already gives the accounting foundation for this. The city should convert that into a plain-English performance document. At the same time, freeze any new vanity-capital commitments until every major project is ranked by economic return, neighborhood benefit, infrastructure necessity, and maintenance burden. Transparency and visibility is the first step, not finger-pointing or blaming.

Year 2: Build the productive-economy pipeline.
This is the year Bossier should create a defense-to-commercial business recruitment initiative. The pitch is simple: if you want access to Air Force talent, cyber talent, veteran talent, interstate access, river-port access, and lower occupancy costs than larger metros, Bossier can compete. But the city must package sites, expedite permitting, and coordinate with Louisiana Tech, BPCC, the Cyber Innovation Center (CIC), and regional employers.

The target list should include cyber services, aerospace support, simulation, IT managed services, advanced materials, distribution tech, and industrial maintenance firms. Measurable goal: land three to five private employers whose revenues do not depend primarily on gaming or local government spending. Williamson’s description of the cyber assets shows the raw material is already there. This is not just a function of the CIC director, this is a critical City role.

Year 3: Infrastructure with proof, not slogans.
Borrow Tyler’s discipline. Tyler’s public materials show how a dedicated sales-tax structure funds drainage, streets, public safety, and facilities, and how the 2025 budget tied money to named infrastructure categories and downtown redevelopment. Bossier should respond with its own version, but sharper: publish a three-year rolling capital map for drainage, streets, utility upgrades, corridor redevelopment, and district improvements. Prioritize projects that unlock taxable value and private investment, not just projects that look impressive. If a road, drainage, or utility project does not improve safety, resilience, development capacity, or maintenance efficiency, it should fall in rank.

Year 4: East Bank and corridor strategy.
By year four, Bossier should have enough fiscal clarity to push district-specific development. The East Bank District should become the city’s demonstration zone for walkable redevelopment, upper-story housing, local food and beverage, small office space, and event programming. Meanwhile, Airline, Benton, and South Bossier nodes need corridor plans tied to access management, signage, drainage, and site redevelopment. Bossier’s own financial report says East Bank can function as an economic and community hub. Fine. Then treat it like one. Do not just decorate it. Feed it residents, foot traffic, and small-business oxygen. Replicate this in South Bossier with mixed-use development a la Hot Springs with main street commercial zones backed into residential areas and watch walkability and quality of life rise dramatically.

Year 5: Institutionalize discipline.
The last year is about making reform hard to reverse. Put annual tax-usage dashboards into ordinance or charter-level practice. Require incentive agreements to include job-quality metrics, clawbacks, and annual reporting. Publish an annual “economic resilience score” showing the share of payroll and tax base tied to military, gaming, health care, manufacturing, logistics, and local entrepreneurship. Longview’s profile is useful here because it shows what a more balanced sector mix looks like, even with imperfections. The goal is not to become Tyler or Longview. The goal is to make Bossier less fragile than it is now.

So the completed statement, in polished form, is this:

Bossier City would be better if it used its tax base to build a real economy instead of relying so heavily on casino traffic, military payroll, and growth by inertia; if it treated Barksdale as a launchpad for private-sector cyber, logistics, and technical industry; if it made every dedicated tax dollar legible to the public; and if, over the next five years, it shifted from being a city that consumes outside money to one that systematically produces local wealth, resilient employers, and measurable return for taxpayers.

Wes Merriott is the editor of SOBO.live, and frequent observer of politics and economics in Northwest Louisiana.