3 challenge Holden for EBR top spot

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 12, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Kip Holden, East Baton Rouge’s first African-American mayor-president, will face two white Republicans and a fellow black Democrat in his bid for a second term.

District 1 Metro Councilman Wayne Carter, former state Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle and former East Baton Rouge Parish School Board member Ron Johnson all signed up in the final hours of qualifying Friday to run against Holden in the Oct. 4 election.

Carter and Kyle are both Republicans while Johnson is a Democrat.

Johnson declined comment after qualifying Friday afternoon, but rumors have been flying for weeks that a black candidate would enter the mayor’s race to split Holden’s support in the black community.

Kyle and Carter both slapped at Holden for proposing a massive bond issue to address drainage and other infrastructure needs.

Holden plans to reveal details of his plan next week. He wants the Metro Council to schedule a tax election Nov. 4 asking voters to authorize an additional half-cent sales tax and a 9.9-mill property tax for 30 years to finance the bond issue.

Carter said Friday that he’s opposed to the proposed tax increase, regardless of what projects are in Holden’s proposal.

“People are having trouble putting gas in their cars. They simply can’t afford a tax increase,” Carter said.

Kyle said that, as a fiscal conservative who believes in smaller government, he would be hard-pressed to support any increase in taxes.

“Rather than raising taxes, I think we should look at spending less,” Kyle said.

Kyle said he’s also concerned about rising crime and worsening traffic in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Carter said he doesn’t think tax increases are needed, noting that sales-tax revenue has been generating millions of dollars of surplus since Hurricane Katrina.

At the very least, Carter said, the council should consider scheduling Holden’s proposed bond-issue election on the same Oct. 4 ballot as the mayor’s primary election. Holden would be on the ballot Nov. 4 only if there’s a runoff, and he is one of the top two finishers in the primary election.