Council keeps tax package on ballot

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 25, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The Metro Council on Wednesday turned back a proposal to cancel Mayor-President Kip Holden’s Nov. 4 tax election so it can be revamped to include hurricane-related  improvements.

Councilman Pat Culbertson made the push to scrap the tax election, saying that it included hundreds of millions of dollars for economic development in East Baton Rouge Parish that was unnecessary while ignoring the need for generators in the event of hurricanes, such as Gustav and Ike, or other emergencies.

“What we learned from Hurricane Gustav was the need for electrical power. We’re helpless  without  it,” he  said.

Several major hospitals in the Baton Rouge area were on the verge of having to transport critically ill patients to other medical facilities outside Louisiana because of the widespread power outages following  Gustav.

Culbertson brushed aside arguments that the hospitals are financially capable of providing their own generators for emergencies. He noted that the hospitals’ needs are more important to most residents than the millions of dollars that have been spent to lure companies to the Baton Rouge  area.

Holden is asking voters parishwide to approve a 30-year, $989 million bond proposal — using a half-cent sales tax and a 9.9-mill property tax increase — to pay for an ambitious capital improvements program that includes:

• $247.5 million for a riverfront tourist attraction.
• $208.3 million to improve drainage and replace 38 dangerous bridges.
• $144.3 million to expand the River Center and its parking.
• $135.3 million for a new Parish Prison.
• $89.7 million for a new complex to house City Police and the Sheriff’s Office.
• $49.1 million to convert the Governmental Building into a City Hall.
• $45.2 million to update and synchronize traffic signals.
• $43.5 million for a new juvenile justice center.
• $26.3 million to replace eight aging fire stations.

Culbertson said he opposed the mayor’s proposal from the beginning because it lumped all of the projects in a single up-or-down vote.

But Culbertson’s proposal to scrap the tax election received three votes: Culbertson, Byron Sharper and Joe Greco. He needed seven of 12 council votes.

Councilman Wayne Carter initially voted in favor of Culbertson’s proposal, but later changed his vote.

Carter said he opposed the tax election, but he wants it to remain on the Nov. 4 so voters can defeat it.

Carter; Dan Kyle, a former state legislative auditor; and Ronald Johnson, a former assistant attorney general and former parish School Board member, are running against Holden for mayor this fall. The election is Oct. 4.

The other council members voted against Culbertson’s proposal, except for Lorri Burgess and David Boneno, who were absent.

“It occurred to me as I looked down this list that none of them (the items in Holden’s plan) would have helped during Hurricane Gustav,” Culbertson told the council.

Specifically, Culbertson said he would like to see the tax package provide generators at the sewage plants and lift stations, as well as at local hospitals.