Changes

In 2012, Mayor Walker confirmed that taxpayers in his city faced the loss of $6.7 million in damages to the U. L. Coleman Company, a [[real estate]] firm in Shreveport, in the settlement of a long-running legal dispute in state and federal court. Moreover, the city expended $10.4 million in infrastructure improvements, the cost of a walkway over the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, and a $1 million park between CenturyLink Center, the municipal arena, and the proposed "Walker Place" development project. Demographer and public policy analyst Elliott Stonecipher placed the total loss to the city, including legal fees, at nearly $25 million. Stonecipher said the losses are "100 percent the fault of the government those taxpayers have put in office and strongly supported."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forward-now.com/2012/12/12/bossier-mob-takes-a-hit-from-u-l-coleman/|title="Bossier Mob" Takes a Hit from U. L. Coleman|date=December 12, 2012|author=Elliott Stonecipher|publisher=''Forward Now!''|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://npaper-wehaa.com/forum-news/2013/05/01/?g=print#?article=1896272|title=Walker Place, Part 2|publisher=''The Forum Newsweekly''|date=May 1, 2013|author=Elliott Stonecipher|accessdate=March 2, 2015}}</ref>​

In 2012, Mayor Walker confirmed that taxpayers in his city faced the loss of $6.7 million in damages to the U. L. Coleman Company, a [[real estate]] firm in Shreveport, in the settlement of a long-running legal dispute in state and federal court. Moreover, the city expended $10.4 million in infrastructure improvements, the cost of a walkway over the Arthur Ray Teague Parkway, and a $1 million park between CenturyLink Center, the municipal arena, and the proposed "Walker Place" development project. Demographer and public policy analyst Elliott Stonecipher placed the total loss to the city, including legal fees, at nearly $25 million. Stonecipher said the losses are "100 percent the fault of the government those taxpayers have put in office and strongly supported."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forward-now.com/2012/12/12/bossier-mob-takes-a-hit-from-u-l-coleman/|title="Bossier Mob" Takes a Hit from U. L. Coleman|date=December 12, 2012|author=Elliott Stonecipher|publisher=''Forward Now!''|accessdate=February 28, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://npaper-wehaa.com/forum-news/2013/05/01/?g=print#?article=1896272|title=Walker Place, Part 2|publisher=''The Forum Newsweekly''|date=May 1, 2013|author=Elliott Stonecipher|accessdate=March 2, 2015}}</ref>​

In December 2014, the city council once again rejected pay increases for municipal employees as Mayor Walker proposed. Columnist Jeffrey Dennis Sadow attributed the lack of funding for the raises to the recurring high costs associated with the operation of the CenturyLink Center, which opened in 2000. CenturyLink cost $1,500 per resident, or more than $55 million, nearly $20 million more than had been anticipated by city officials. Through 2013, the city spent $5 million more to operate the center. Minor league sports teams, unable to survive, abandoned the CenturyLink. In 2013 alone, the city transferred $750,000 into CenturyLink and still ran a deficit of $200,000. Those costs could have funded the pay raises. Sadow proposed that the city sell CenturyLink at a loss so that it not become a permanent white elephant on municipal expenditures.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thehayride.com/2014/12/sadow-bossier-city-fiddles-while-its-arena-burns-tax-dollars/|title=Sadow: Bossier City Fiddles While Its Arena Burns Tax Dollars|author=Jeffrey Dennis Sadow|date=December 22, 2014|publisher=''The Hayride''|accessdate=February 28, 2014}}</ref>

In December 2014, the city council once again rejected pay increases for municipal employees as Mayor Walker proposed. Columnist Jeffrey Dennis Sadow attributed the lack of funding for the raises to the recurring high costs associated with the operation of the CenturyLink Center, which opened in 2000. CenturyLink cost $1,500 per resident, or more than $55 million, nearly $20 million more than had been anticipated by city officials. Through 2013, the city spent $5 million more to operate the center. Minor league sports teams, unable to survive, abandoned the CenturyLink. In 2013 alone, the city transferred $750,000 into CenturyLink and still ran a deficit of $200,000. Those costs could have funded the pay raises. Sadow proposed that the city sell CenturyLink at a loss so that it not become a permanent white elephant on municipal expenditures.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thehayride.com/2014/12/sadow-bossier-city-fiddles-while-its-arena-burns-tax-dollars/|title=Sadow: Bossier City Fiddles While Its Arena Burns Tax Dollars|author=Jeffrey Dennis Sadow|date=December 22, 2014|publisher=''The Hayride''|accessdate=May 12, 2020}}</ref>

Despite such cost concerns, Walker noted that Bossier City was ranked by ''Business Week'' [[magazine]] in 2008 as "one of the best places in America to raise a child."<ref name=walker/> Bossier City also ranks on the ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine Top 10 list for job opportunities.<ref name=cng/>​

Despite such cost concerns, Walker noted that Bossier City was ranked by ''Business Week'' [[magazine]] in 2008 as "one of the best places in America to raise a child."<ref name=walker/> Bossier City also ranks on the ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine Top 10 list for job opportunities.<ref name=cng/>​