Chamber backs public works plan

• Advocate staff report
• Published: Jul 23, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The Baton Rouge Area Chamber endorsed Mayor-President Kip Holden’s proposed $989 million public works and economic development plan Tuesday, calling the 30-year bond issue a needed stimulus for East Baton Rouge Parish and the region.

Holden and his chief administrative officer, Walter Monsour, presented the plan at the chamber’s July board meeting. The private nonprofit economic development group represents nine Baton Rouge area parishes.

“What truly makes this proposal great is that it takes care of our failures of the past, addresses our challenges of today, and moves the Baton Rouge area forward,” BRAC Chairman Jim Ellis said in a statement. “We can’t continue our path to be great, as a place, without a proposal like this.”

Holden’s plan would include $596 million to improve drainage, traffic signals, bridges and prison, police, firefighter and Governmental Building facilities, along with a $248 million riverfront Audubon Alive tourist attraction and $145 million to expand the River Center and its parking garages.

Chamber leaders said the bond issue shouldn’t be dismantled into smaller parts and that the economic development parts of the plan would help retire the bond debt sooner.

The chamber also endorsed Nov. 4 — the presidential election date — as the day for holding the bond election. Voting in favor of the bond issue would mean a half-cent sales tax increase to 9.5 percent and another 9.9 mills in property tax, or $9.90 per $1,000 in assessed value.

City officials have estimated a $200,000 residence would be taxed at about $124 more under the plan, after the homestead exemption is applied.