It never ends. More taxes, more spending, more government jobs.
$35M tagged for streets, drainage
Water, sewer upgrades on tap
Citizens speak on city project
Remember, this was the same group of people who threw a fit when some Lincoln Parish Police Jurors suggested tax breaks for selected business was ill-timed.
But then, everyday shoppers who will pay the additional sales tax don’t buy newspaper advertisements.
Lincoln Parish News Online 
03/22/2016 at 3:54 pm |
We’re still paying for the last round of upgrades to the sewer system. Seems interesting that the output from your house costs about six times as much as the input. If I used ~$3.50 on water (not counting the 5/8″ line revenue brainchild of the city), how then is my sewer charge over $20. Seems your output would follow your input as it used to do. Does anyone else remember the statement where they let us know the increase to cover the upgrade/renovations would cease once they were completed?
03/22/2016 at 4:38 pm |
Ruston Leader is basically a promotional tabloid for the local Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor, and local officials. Yall just tell us what you want us to say and we will. So why would anyone question the paper’s drumbeat pushing for more local sales taxes? After all, the beauty part about this tax increase is there’s something for everyone in there. There’ll be a chicken in every pot! We’re moving Ruston forward!
03/23/2016 at 8:22 am |
No amount of logic will ever sway the loony left from its faith in higher taxes to pay for more “gubbermint” handouts to those at the bottom who are kept at the bottom through the policies of the loony left. Those high tax policies, along with a loose legal system that promotes the highest concentration of lawyers per capita in America to drag any business foolish enough to locate here into court over the flimsiest of excuses, discourage businesses from locating in the state to provide the employment opportunities which would rescue the poor from the slavery of state dependence in the first place and make those “gubbermint” handouts unnecessary.
Our neighbor Texas attracts businesses from all over the country, but not for the reason most presume. Sure, low taxes are extremely attractive, but the toughest tort reform in the country is the lure that convinces businesses that Texas is serious about protecting their interests from the jackals at the bar. Louisiana must man up by cutting unnecessary and unwanted services to lower state outlays (read cut spending), finally diversify the tax base away from natural resources to force citizens to pay their fair share (read no more free rides for the bottom classes), and pass Texas-style tort reform to encourage lawyers to leave the state and begin enlarging our presently shrinking economic pie (read increase income). The advantage to the legal class would be less competition from fewer lawyers as the bottom feeders move elsewhere for their easy pickings, and an increasing economic pie for those remaining. That would mean more legal work for incorporations, contracts, trusts, etc. as business growth and economic revitalization take off.
And please, we must avoid at all costs electing another “whiz kid” promising economic nirvana while running the state into the ground in service to his national political delusions!
03/23/2016 at 1:26 pm |
Welcome to sales taxes: today, 8.75% Add 1% state increase, plus 3/4% city increase: 10.5% sales tax rate in Ruston.
Why not just raise it to 12% and really fix it up?
03/23/2016 at 2:34 pm |
Curious: how would y’all fund the sewer and water plant upgrades? Our roads/bridges? This isn’t a rhetorical question- I’m not picking a fight. I actually would like to hear ideas on funding our infrastructure upgrades.
03/23/2016 at 3:16 pm |
No. 1 One place to start would be waste. Spend the taxpayers money more wisely.
03/29/2016 at 12:59 pm |
Your looking for an answer to a question at the end of the chain. What you really need to focus on is the notion that the other pork barrel links before it are absolutely necessary.
03/29/2016 at 1:03 pm |
Grammar police shoot me: “your”
03/26/2016 at 9:20 pm |
City has plenty of money now for needs in all these areas. The “bridges-roads-sewers” stuff is tossed in to complete the grab-bag; i.e. something for everybody. That’s how you get tax increases passed, along with an election date assuring low turnout.
This is all about funding the Mayor’s campaign promises: anew million Dollar playground, et al.
As for funding ‘infrastructure upgrades”: did these deficiencies exist when Ruston was “beautifying” downtown? Does anyone really think that the money spent there was more important than “sewer and water infrastructure”? Either there was some mighty poor prioritization going on, or else the claims these things suddenly are deficient are created out of whole cloth as bait for the tax increase.
03/30/2016 at 9:35 am |
Is there a dollar value recorded somewhere for the public to see that could give us an idea of how much money is laying on the ground out at the facility on Tennessee? If it isn’t over $1M, I’ll eat my hat. Sewer and electric “parts” that the city has on hand in case it’s needed. Being prepared is laudable but I’d bet nothing that the city is holding in inventory could not be over-nighted if needed.
03/30/2016 at 4:27 pm |
Daily – Fri/Sat, March 25/26 – front page
03/30/2016 at 4:26 pm |
Bob, the dollar amounts are listed on the front page of City’s newspaper – Fri/Sat, March 25/26 edition.
During the Mayor’s election campaign – specifically the debate at LaTech – he stated the money to build the sports complex would come directly from a 15 cent hotel tax. He stated he already spoke to the local hotel owners, and every one of them agreed to the tax to fund the complex. Just jogging everyone’s memory before voting day.