re: 20 year Tax Incentives that landed Buc-ee's in Ruston.

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Is there a body of water in Ruston to dump the Beaver Nuggets in?

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No, Ruston gets it’s water from the Sparta aquifer which for years the locals have been told is running dry. They have actually had multiple campaigns encouraging people to conserve water.

Yeah you don’t hear much bout the Sparta aquifer going dry anymore. It was a huge topic a few years ago. Not so much now

Sorry double post

Certainly not taking a shot. As previously stated, Buc-ees will not help the aquifer situation, especially with tax dollars being rebated. One could also question the discounted electric rates when the City of Ruston power grid is in poor shape. Ruston has agreed to pay for the needed infrastructure improvements while rebating most of the sales tax dollars to Buc-eyes. How will the improvements be funded?

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The city will reimburse Buc-ee’s its portion of sales and property tax revenue for 20 years. West says even with the incentives, Ruston will still make money.

The Lincoln Parish Police Jury and Lincoln Parish School Board will also return their portion of sales tax revenue for two decades, while the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office will return their share of Buc-ee’s property tax.

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School district I guess will still get property tax which will help. These 20 year tax deals can be hard to quantify down the road especially accounting for lost revenue if other local businesses cut jobs, lose revenue, or close. There will be increased expenses including more problems and more than likely other deals will have to be given out to keep developing going. In 20 years there will be talk of redoing it to reinvest in this now aging area. I doubt city loses money, but it’s not always the bonanza officials claim. For the city to just hand back sales tax and property tax for 20 years to this one company versus more short term incentives then doing partial with rest going into developing and maintaining roads and infrastructure for a much bigger economic zone surrounding it seems a little more wishful thinking on the additional revenue coming on its own dime than I usually see.

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“The other businesses that potentially will come with Buc-ee’s, they will not get those sales tax incentives,” explained West. “The city will generate revenue off of that.”
… West points to a Buc-ee’s in Terrell, Texas as proof the location in Ruston will spur development.

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Potentially yes but not sure Terrell is best comparison. It had another travel/trucker place, gas & stop places, and outlet stores long before and was already a place to stop before getting to DFW or after getting out (with I20 and 80 split). Some of that revenue just shifted west within city. Not sure where it’s competition was, but Terrell needed it to maintain some of that if Buc-ee was also looking at other places nearby. The city itself is kind of trashy, and this is on outskirts. I think the selling point is stop here and rest before or after driving through crappy DFW traffic and don’t worry it’s basically not Terrell (unless you like Jamie Foxx then Welcome to Terrell). In 20 years they will have to do something else. Also Texas can reimburse some local entities for some of the tax revenue loss as part of an investment zone developmental deal. I am not sure if this happened with Terrell and Buc-ees (if school district also involved in deal than more likely it’s done at least for school district) but also don’t know what state of Louisiana does in these situations.

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Potentially yes but not sure Terrell is best comparison. It had another travel/trucker place, gas & stop places, and outlet stores long before and was already a place to stop before getting to DFW or after getting out (with I20 and 80 split). Some of that revenue just shifted west within city. Not sure where it’s competition was, but Terrell needed it to maintain some of that if Buc-ee was also looking at other places nearby. The city itself is kind of trashy, and this is on outskirts. I think the selling point is stop here and rest before or after driving through crappy DFW traffic and don’t worry it’s basically not Terrell (unless you like Jamie Foxx then Welcome to Terrell). In 20 years they will have to do something else. Also Texas can reimburse some local entities for some of the tax revenue loss as part of these development deals. I am not sure if this happened with Terrell and Buc-ees (if school district also involved in deal than more likely it’s done at least for that) but also don’t know what state of Louisiana does in these situations.

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Terrell,Ennis,Royse City are all terrible comparisons to Ruston. Ennis would be the closest comparison but it still has way more traffic flow than Ruston.

Normal by the way

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One could also question the discounted electric rates when the City of Ruston power grid is in poor shape. Ruston has agreed to pay for the needed infrastructure improvements while rebating most of the sales tax dollars to Buc-ees. How will the improvements be funded?

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Sounds like Ruston had an answer for that. From the Lincoln Journal article posted back on pg 2. Walker said out of all the cities in Louisiana that could apply, only 2 cities signed up. Ruston and Monroe. Seems to be helping us 20+ years later

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Walker also made note that the city really is only surrendering .97 percent thanks to Ruston’s participation within the state’s tax incremental district.According to Walker, the tax incremental tax district runs parallel along I-20 and the state receives 4.5 percent sales tax for any businesses located within that footprint. The state then in turn sends back 40 percent of that total (1.78 percent) that Ruston can use for work only within that tax incremental district footprint (roads, bridges, water, sewer, electricity).

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Do other gas stations get the same handout?

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No because frick the other gas stations up here. They all collude with each other and charge some of the highest prices in the area. I’ll bet they’ve been screaming to the sky since this news broke and I am thrilled they don’t get to frick everyone over anymore.