Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

This week on Louisiana, the state we're in, we're looking ahead to the new year, its challenges and the opportunities that come with them.

And we're speaking of leaders from major areas across the state and learning their priorities for 2026.

Let's get started.

Hi everyone.

I'm Christina Jensen and I'm Johnny Atkinson.

Thank you for joining us for Louisiana, the state we're in.

And welcome to our first show of the New Year.

That's right.

We're kicking off our first show of 2026 by heading to the capital city.

Over in Baton Rouge, they face numerous challenges after Mayor Edwards's thrive initiative failed in late 2025.

That tax plan was meant to help pull East Baton Rouge Parish out of a massive budget deficit.

Now, jobs and major events could be on the chopping block.

East Baton Rouge Parish moves forward with the 2026 budget that leaders say reflects one of the most serious financial challenges in decades.

At the center, the fallout from the creation of the City of Saint George and the shrinking tax base that comes with it.

A tense council meeting ended with the mayor president's proposed budget passing, but not without debate, frustration and warnings of what's ahead.

Mayor president said Edwards's plan cuts more than $15 million from the parishes general fund, along with around 420 positions, through layoffs, retirements and unfilled vacancies.

Departments from public works to the district attorney will see reductions.

Police and fire.

The largest public safety agencies were spared.

Edward says the math is simple without new money, the parish cannot fund services at current levels.

I think people thought I was playing what I was talking about, the throw off initiative.

I wasn't playing.

This is our reality and we're going to make that bridge work.

Do I want to parades?

Yes.

My grandchildren love them.

Do want the arts, the museum every day.

We all want that.

But hey, I said it on November the 15th.

When November 16th comes, Baton Rouge is going to be different this way and that way.

And we that way.

The Thrive Ebbers tax rededication plan was rejected by voters earlier this fall, and would have rerouted portions of existing mileages from agencies like the library, mosquito abatement and the Council on Aging to fill the budget gap.

Edwards argued it was the only way to prevent slash budgets and protect basic city parish operations from mowing and trash pickup to fleet services and drainage work.

But across party lines, Republican Rowdy Joe Day and Democrat Anthony Kenny agreed.

While some services are protected, others will be impacted.

The fee that funds garbage delivery and sewer delivery throughout the parish are not impacted, so residents pay those fees when when those services are needed and so those services will not be cut, reduced, impacted at all.

Those services remain exactly as residents have been experiencing.

Agencies like our public works departments that do experience cuts, residents should should really, when I say turn up the volume on communicating with their council members, which not the same Baton Rouge or 4 or 5 years ago.

We have a new brand new city.

They went through the ranks, they went through the legal process, and they're here now.

And so we have to navigate as a city payers, how do we navigate with those specific dollars not being a part of our general fund.

And unfortunately, you know, it has led to the budget crisis that we have.

At the heart of the budget crisis is the incorporation of the City of Saint George.

As residents there redirect their tax dollars, the Parishes General Fund continues to shrink constitutional offices, and the courts are expected to feel the impact most, with some leaders questioning whether those cuts are fair.

District Attorney Hilary Moore is facing an 11% budget cut, a move he calls not just deep but outright unfair.

He warns that years of underfunding, combined with these new reductions, now put core responsibilities at risk from prosecuting cases to supporting victims.

Moore says he's weighing legal action despite board members sacrificing parts of their budgets to try to save his department.

We had some council members that minute their budgets to give towards his office were off.

But understand that just was kind of a band aid on a wound that he has with budget cuts.

But, I don't know if he's going to go through with the lawsuit in this current state and moment.

But to a degree, you know, I can see why he would want to do so.

Right?

Because he want to make sure he can maximize the services and workforce in his office to render the proper services for our parish.

And I will be the first to say the district attorney's office, is is underfunded from the needs that it has, from both a personnel perspective, and a case processing perspective.

And so as a council, we looked for, you know, literally look for every, nickel that we could, within our own budgets to put additional dollars into the district attorney's, budget.

You know, it's still a decision that he has to make.

So he got some new information when we passed the budget.

He's going to go back, take a look at those numbers, see how they, you know, fold into the budget.

He was anticipating.

And then we'll have some follow up conversations as we enter the new year about what does it look like for you?

And, you know, what are your next steps going forward as council members navigate this new normal, another challenge arises keeping parade safe.

One of the city's biggest Mardi Gras traditions, the Spanish Town Parade, could be in jeopardy of funding for security doesn't come through as we take on budget cuts as a parish and look for ways to make those cuts.

One of those areas was communicating with parades, festivals, who were traditionally given that service and saying, as we are moving forward in this new day, this new advent about reduced budget, this is an area the parish cannot continue to provide at no cost.

This is kind of a signal to everybody who does parades in that area.

You know, we may have to look at alternative means of funding for them to support, our police officers on rendering services for their parades.

The council's message to the public is clear without new revenue, East Baton Rouge Parish will continue to reduce services.

Public works, legal services and neighborhood operations could all be affected in 2026.

The 2026 budget is now approved, but the debate over fairness, funding and what Saint George means for the parishes future is only just beginning.

We reached out to the mayor's office, but were unable to schedule an interview in time for this taping.

And Lake Charles, the city, is still recovering from the devastating Hurricanes Moore and Delver back in 2020.

Over the past year, a new children's museum and nature center opened up, but the work is far from over.

I spoke to Mayor Marshall Simeon Junior for a look at his plan for Lake Charles in his first full year in office.

I'm joined now by the Mayor of Lake Charles, Marshall, Simeon and Marshall.

You've been mayor now for about five months.

What's it been like?

That's been fun.

Good fun.

Busy.

But a good busy.

Yeah, yeah, I know you've got a lot on your plate.

And in the first five months, you say that you want, to be different government and not politics.

What do you mean by that?

Talk about politics.

You know, politicians make decisions based on the next election.

Statesmen make decisions based on the next generation.

So I think there needs to be a balance.

You know, you want to you want to make sure that you're accountable and get elected, but you also want to make sure that what you focus in on is the, hand off the baton seamlessly so that the next generation can benefit I. One of the big things has been the city budget.

How are you dealing with city budget now?

When I first came in, that's the first thing we would tackling was the city budget meeting with all the department heads and getting what they wanted.

And it didn't change that much from last year.

We had a good budget in place and we got some good direction because one of my goals is to expand the revenues of the city, because the one of the big things that we saw throughout the budget process is that we have a lot of people that work hard for their families, but they're not paid the wages that they're entitled to.

Talking about city services, I know drainage issues has been a problem in Lake Charles in the past.

What are you doing now?

Well, what I need with the with the municipality is, you know, the parish has drainage issues.

The city has.

We've been putting like, municipal retention ponds, you know, before that, businesses would have to build their own retention pond and then only service that business.

But now, by building a municipal retention pond, addressing both the commercial and the private sector, the Capital One tower was kind of a big issue in the election.

Yes.

What are you doing about that?

The tower came down and it was iconic.

I think the, the community, it, it affected us more than anybody really thought about a $30 million, 140,000 square foot sports complex that we're going to put on that site.

And I think that's going to be a good investment.

It right in the middle of our downtown run, all the restaurants, shops, the lakefront.

So I think it's going to be a benefit.

One of the things was crime.

A year ago, crime in Lake Charles was bad.

What are you doing about that?

We've got a task force operate now between the state police, the sheriff's office and the city police.

So we've, we're addressing on that side by the enforcement side.

But on the other side, we're activating a lot more of our parks and recreation.

A lot of the kids have a lot of energy.

If you find things from the doing, channel that energy in a positive direction.

You get positive outcomes.

But if you don't, the streets are waiting for them.

So we're kind of taking them back from the streets and putting them in safe environments.

Let them do what they need to do.

Well, natural disaster has been a problem around Louisiana.

Yes.

What are you doing about that for Lake Charles?

It's not a matter of if we're going to, experiencing the disaster, but when we've had some disaster recovery funds from the previous storm.

So we're actually investing in different places to harden assets like resiliency hubs.

We put in those near major interstate systems so that when these disasters come, we can stage recovery a whole lot more efficiently.

A big part of, the election, the campaigns was new businesses coming to Lake Charles.

Yes.

How's that going?

It's going great.

We.

You know, this is a business friendly administration.

Actually, I was in the private sector.

I represented businesses, so I understand what businesses are looking for and and what they bring to the communities, but also the community needs, you know, we we need a community that support businesses but also protects them.

And businesses will invest in places where they feel that there's a market that that really not just wants their products, but also welcomes them.

And I think the people in this area, it southwest Louisiana, I called it a Lake City vibe when people come here, they pick it up and they're willing to invest.

And we've got a good mix of a variety of industries.

So hopefully with all of the humming, we'll, we'll be able to weather a few storms as they come.

Housing costs in Lake Charles.

Is that improving or you see some changes in the future?

We had a housing boom and there was some concerns about housing.

I think more of is tied to the interest rates, but those are starting to come down and now you're starting to see more investment.

It's more on the on the unit side, but we're hoping that we attract enough people that they want to stay here so that affect the permanent housing and that we're working with the developers, the realtors and everyone else, school systems to make sure that that everything is attractive to drive that market.

Yeah.

So what about the schools in Lake Charles?

Any changes?

As you see, you starting to see a lot of investment like, Saint Louis Catholic High School that was devastated by the storms.

They're building a brand new campus.

You seeing the, the charter schools are doing very, very well.

I think the school system itself is looking at if they have excess facilities and start trying to consolidate those, to put those costs put more that cost into the classroom as opposed to maintaining facilities.

I Teignbridge.

Yes.

Is that's something that you see changing in the future.

They've already started.

So the I Teignbridge is a seven year, $2.1 billion project.

And it's long overdue.

And it's going to be a game changer, you know, because, for decades people have been talking about we need to replace that bridge going to be a lower bridge.

It's going to have more lanes.

It's going to have more.

The emergency function that's going to be replaced, and it's going to be a functional bridge that actually compliments the region.

Tell me what you see in the future for Lake Charles.

I see great things for for Lake Charles.

You know, we've we've had a number of different people come in for we had the, the Louisiana municipal Association convention that the Americas LNG convention, we had the realtors, the I a architect conferences.

There's a certain energy now in the city where people are saying that we've turned the corner and we're moving forward.

And so that's something that's a way that we can continue to ride as long as we manage it well and make sure that that everybody's a part of it.

I ran on this, this platform of one Lake Charles, and it wasn't just a saying.

It's really how do you bring everybody to the table?

And that's building not just I-10 bridges, but building bridges, between different communities that before had not really communicated, but also explaining to them why they should cross those bridges in the first place.

And I think people have been very receptive to that.

The mayor of Lake Charles, thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

From a new entertainment hub to a record setting season for the LSU Shreveport Pillage, the city made its mark in 2025, and leaders plan to keep up the momentum in the new year.

I sat down with mayor Tom Arceneaux to talk about his priorities for 2026.

Mayor Arceneaux, thank you so much for joining us.

I'm glad to be with you.

So I'm so happy to be back in Shreveport.

You know, I worked in North Louisiana.

Shreveport has a special place in my heart, and 2025 has been such a good year for you guys.

I mean, Shreveport pilots winning a perfect season.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

Yeah, not just a national championship, but a perfect season, which for baseball is simply remarkable.

It's 59, you know, there's no way anybody's going to break that record.

And not only that, but 50 cent making a lot of headlines, investing millions into the city.

How does that make you feel just to see your city gained so much traction?

That's been the theme of our administration, is to get people starting to think about the positive aspects of Shreveport, and there are so very many of them, and a lot of them have manifested this year.

Certainly the LSU in Shreveport Pilots, was a tremendous, tremendous story.

Great group of young men.

They were even on the national news.

They were on the national news.

I went to the white House.

It was cool.

It really was a great story.

And we're thrilled, we're thrilled about it.

We also have begun work on the largest bond issue in the history of Shreveport that we passed in April of 2024.

It's $256.1 million in new capital infrastructure investment.

We are growing the area is growing.

You know, we we live in a metropolitan area.

Shreveport is the heart of it, but we're not the only component of it.

And of course, every year always has challenges.

We're going to talk about some of the challenges.

Yeah, crime.

Crime was a big issue in my campaign.

And, the the fact of the matter is that our, our homicide rate has decreased substantially.

Our violent crime rate has decreased substantially.

Our shots and shots fired and shootings.

And the difference in that is shooting means somebody actually got hit.

Shots fired.

Is somebody reporting that they heard gunfire?

Those things are all, on a downtrend.

And that's somewhat true for a lot of municipalities.

In the area, we are getting the benefit of some economic growth.

We're getting the benefit of some successful policing.

We have a real time crime center that has about 2500 camera angles throughout the city of Shreveport.

So in a lot of our high crime areas, if you do something, you're going to be on camera.

And that has resulted in the apprehension of a lot of folks who were, were involved in crime.

I believe that the knowledge that you're likely to get caught is the single biggest deterrent.

We think that our closure rate, somewhere around 64%, is very helpful in the deterrence of crime.

I want to talk about weather events 20, 25.

Y'all were in the headlines a lot for some severe weather.

How was it dealing with those challenges?

We received some significant rainfall, but nothing compared to, 2023 because the 2023, we had a tornado in March, and then we had on June 16th of that year, we had this huge wind shear that came mine and left us without power for about two weeks.

So we what we did, we learn how to deal with those kinds of crises.

And we actually found that we were pretty good at it.

That's great.

Let's talk about the upcoming year 2026.

What are you guys looking forward to, first of all, implementation of that bond issue that I talked about earlier, we we've sold the first $88 million worth of that.

A lot of that is going to be in projects that will be beginning.

Some have begun a couple of them have been completed in this year, but a lot of that work will be done in 2026.

And then we unveiled a, a program called Block by Block, Community Reinvestment, where we're going into, historically significant areas.

But areas that have become impoverished and working on cleaning up those areas and then redeveloping those areas to bring people back into the inner core of the city of Shreveport.

That was my next question.

The rising cost of living.

You know, it's we're all talking about it.

Is that something you guys are looking to for housing for affordable housing, etc.?

Yeah, I think, we have a need, a tremendous need for housing that is affordable for people to own their own homes and to participate in the economy.

And that's a major focus of our administration.

And with you guys becoming a future entertainment district, how are you going to be dealing with workforce training to get some of your workers qualified for some of those jobs coming in for the entertainment district?

A lot of those jobs are for OJT, on the job training.

But, we also have we also have a workforce of people available to perform those tasks.

So I think what you'll see is you'll find it'll be a population influx again, we'll have people coming in to Shreveport that have not been in Shreveport for a while, or maybe never been in Shreveport, but are qualified in these areas because, if you look at, you know, if you ever remember looking at the credits for a film or a television, you see all these people that had a role in it, and it's a really long list.

It's a whole lot more crew involved in that production than there are actors and actresses.

All right.

Well, it looks like so much has been happening here.

Super excited for y'all.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for talking with us.

My pleasure.

Lafayette Mayor President Monique Blanco Boulay made history in 2024 when she became the city's first female mayor.

One of her first priorities was cleaning up local government and working through a list of financial issues.

Here's a look at Mayor Day's top items to deal with in 2026.

I'm joined now by the mayor president of Lafayette, Monique Boulay.

And tell me about the city of Lafayette in 2025.

The 2025.

We started with the blizzard, very unexpectedly.

And I don't know if we've ever had a technical blizzard, but we did in 25.

That was such a unique event for us here in Louisiana.

We're used to hurricanes.

We're prepared for hurricanes.

We know what to do.

But with the blizzard, it was a little bit different.

It was roadway issues that we were dealing with and in health care access, making sure we had access to the hospitals.

At one point, a Acadian ambulance came in panicked because they couldn't get the ambulances into the neighborhoods.

They could get them on the roads we had cleared.

They couldn't drive.

They didn't have four wheel drive on those trucks.

And so we immediately were able to pull public works, get the front loaders, borrow some from our U.S., which is our utility company, and get every ambulance in town paired up with the right machinery to be able to get through the neighborhoods.

Public safety has been an issue in Lafayette, and you've been dealing with the police chief.

What's the latest on that?

Our police chief retired, and I named Paul George interim.

And then last year we we went through the the whole search process.

And, he was selected as police chief.

So I feel good about public safety.

I feel good about the police department.

But the other thing we've added is an emergency preparedness.

We brought that in-house that had been outsourced to 911 for many years.

We brought it in-house and developed a whole emergency prepared, preparedness department that is now on top of everything from natural disasters to our festivals to Mardi Gras.

We are setting up command centers and really bringing in the resources and leveraging the agencies that we have in ways we haven't before.

I was reading about the Bloomberg Mayor's Challenge.

For the privately owned sewer lines.

Yes.

Tell me about that.

We are right now investing 17.5 million in a new lift station for our wastewater system.

In our sewer system, we are processing more rainwater than wastewater, and it really has our whole system tapped out.

So we are in the middle of a project right now, $17.5 million project for a lift station.

But I asked, we own our own sewer department.

My question is, what's next?

What's next?

This system, this new $17 million investment, will bring 2000 units of capacity to the general part of town.

But we need more than that.

And so looking at how do we repair lines throughout the city?

And often it's in your poorest neighborhoods, in your oldest neighborhoods, right, where you have the old clay pipes that are busting, tree roots are coming through.

It's private property.

It's not easy for government to to do that.

Lafayette is known for their Mardi Gras parade.

Do you have any special plans for 2026 2026?

We are going to have a great Mardi Gras.

Not any big changes are going to happen, but we have over two dozen crews in Lafayette.

Lots of balls, lots of parades, lots of parties, and festivities.

Okay, well, another major news was buc-ee's.

Yes, the Lafayette.

Yes.

Excited about Bucky's.

So wasn't a big Bucky's game until I became mayor.

And and while Bucky's is coming to Lafayette.

So I went and visited Bucky's in Texas.

It's a it's a phenomenal place.

80% of their revenue comes from out of town, from highway traffic.

So it's also a really good way to bring in outside money into our community.

So from a mayors perspective, it's a it's a wonderful investment to have here in Lafayette.

America is celebrating 250 years next year.

And how do you see that affecting Lafayette?

Yeah.

So, Lafayette, we are definitely going to come together and celebrate that.

That's that's one of the initiatives that we have been working on for the last year, year and a half.

But really looking at our 4th of July and looking at the celebrations throughout the year that really can emphasize that America 250 and really, I have gained perspective as mayor, president of the contributions not only Acadiana, Louisiana, but the United States, that the role we've had as a country to world peace has been phenomenal, over the centuries, right?

Over the centuries, without this country, those world wars would have certainly gone different directions, and we would all be live in a very different life.

So celebrating our country, understanding our place in the world, understanding how special we are as a as a country is important.

And here in Lafayette, we definitely want to celebrate that.

You grow up in Lafayette.

I did, yeah.

And what was that like?

Oh, you know, it was a wonderful childhood.

Lafayette is a phenomenal community.

It's grown up in such a way, with I think our fiber has had an impact on bringing a lot of technology.

And it's it's rich in culture, deep in family, but then also modern and, and and a little bit, you know, on the cutting edge.

And so it's a really interesting mix from a community perspective.

Tell me about the Cooley Elder Deacon project.

Yeah.

So the Coolio Deacon project is a drainage project.

The the previous administration of that began.

Right.

But had not gone through proper regulatory processes, permits and things like that.

And we have finally gotten to a point with all of the agencies, the state, the Corps of Engineers, to where we have a green light for construction.

So that will be coming in 2026.

I guess it should be on line by 2026.

Yes.

What do you foresee in 2026?

But really going into the community and creating that identity, who are we?

Who do we want people to know who we are and how do we want to tell that story?

And that needs to be in everything we do.

So I'm, I'm I'm excited for that.

You know, the first year was stabilization.

The second year was really kind of a reorganization and and getting a lot of things moving in the pipeline.

And, and the third year we actually get to roll and execute some of that.

And I'm grateful for the team I have.

I talk a lot about what I do, but I could not do it without the people that are around me.

Mayor is, it's a phenomenal position where you get a view of a community that nobody else has.

It had some tough spots, but overall it's really been phenomenal.

I want to thank you, mayor, President Lafayette, for coming on LPB and telling us about 2025.

Absolutely.

Thank you for having me.

Of course, there's a lot going on in other parts of the state, and New Orleans Mayor elect Helena moreno takes office in just a few days.

She's the city's first Latina mayor, and she's inheriting a list of budget and cultural issues.

And over north Louisiana, Monroe city leaders are looking at ways to expand housing options tied to that massive data center that's coming.

Of course, you can count on Louisiana, the state we're in, to cover those stories throughout the year.

And that's a wrap on our first show for 2026.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB anytime, wherever you are with our LPB app.

And you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs that you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Christina Jensen and I'm Johnny Atkinson.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum.

Located in Jennings City Hall, the museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.