If recent surveys are any indication, it's going to be an uphill battle for Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins and backers of his latest bond package, a $240 million proposal to fund a number of areas of city government.
A KEEL poll, for one, shows all but one part ($70 million for police and fire funding) not only losing, but trailing substantially.
But one local social media group is taking opposition to the Perkins plan to new levels, not only attacking the bond proposal, but the Mayor himself.
The Facebook page Vote No in December – Shreveport features a series of posts, photos and memes questioning the wisdom of passing the massive borrowing package and the Mayor's honesty.
Some of the accusations seem to push the limits:
"If the bond proposal is passed, the fees paid to Perkins friends, the bond lawyers, will be 4 to 5 million.
This 4 to 5 million is enough to give every Shreveport policeman a $10,000 bonus!"
Another questions the competence of city government, bringing up the pre-Perkins water billing debacle and even attacks the City Council:
"The City of Shreveport has spent 1 million taxpayer dollars to fight against us, the taxpayers, in receiving our water refunds.
This, at a time when the City of Shreveport is sitting on a $60 million water reserve fund which amounts to $1,000 for every household in Shreveport.
Adrian Perkins and the City Council are asking us, the taxpayers, to give them $240 million more to waste.
Vote no to the absurdity."
And another (of many) breaks down the size of the bond proposal, but with another anti-Perkins twist:
"1. The new $240 million dollar bond proposal Adrian Perkins is asking you to approve in December amounts to $4,000.00 in debt for every family in Shreveport.
2. If approved by voters this new $240 million dollars would allow Adrian Perkins to spend a half-million dollars a day for each and every day left in his term.
3. $240 million in new debt and spending would allow Adrian Perkins to spend  $94,000.00 AN HOUR for each working hour remaining in his term.
4. Only a very small percentage of this new debt will be paid back by the time Perkins leaves office but the citizens of Shreveport will be burdened with the increased taxes for many years."
Perkins, meanwhile, continues to emphasize the importance of this funding for badly needed city projects, including a new police station. "This has to be a collective effort between government and citizens to make sure we get what we need out of this bond," the Mayor told the Times in June, "But it is unequivocal, a need to invest in our city…public safety, infrastructure, technology, you name it.”
And Perkins also said that February's ice storm and ensuing city-wide outages underlined the need for infrastructure upgrades. "We know after the storm that we have to invest in our infrastructure if we want to have a more resilient water system."
To get complete details on each of the Mayor's five bond proposals and to give your opinion in our KEEL poll, JUST CLICK HERE!

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