Baton Rouge tax proposal centers on Audubon Alive project

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 26, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.
• First in a three-part series

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If voters sign off on Mayor-President Kip Holden’s tax package on Nov. 4, Audubon Nature Institute is ready to build its own brand of Magic Kingdom that would be a combination zoo, aquarium and museum.

“Nationally and internationally, this project will be watched — it’s the next major museum in the United States,” said Audubon Nature Institute President and CEO Ron Forman.

Roughly one-fourth of the mayor’s $989 million construction program would be allocated to create the same type of tourist attraction as the Audubon Zoo and the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

The $247 million that would be dedicated to Baton Rouge’s Audubon Alive is enough to build a world-class, iconic project, Forman said.

“We’re talking about one of the leading museums in the country,” he said.

Forman noted that both the Audubon Zoo and the Aquarium received funding from tax elections, just as Holden is proposing for the Audubon tourist attraction in East Baton Rouge Parish.

“We passed a zoo millage in the 1970s with 71 percent of the vote, and passed an aquarium tax 15 years later with 73 percent,” Forman said.

But unlike the Audubon tax elections in New Orleans, Holden also is proposing a large package of projects that would address long-neglected problems like drainage, jail overcrowding, and aging fire and police facilities.

Also included is an expansion of the River Center and its parking facilities.

To fund the $989-million package, Holden is proposing a half-cent sales tax and a 9.9-mill property tax.

The proposed property tax hike would cost an extra $8.25 a month on an average home worth $172,500, or a total of $99 a year, officials said.

Both taxes would remain on the books for 30 years, or until the bonds to finance the projects are paid off.

In planning the Alive attraction for Baton Rouge, Audubon is using the same formula that it used successfully on the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, and other museums in New Orleans, Forman said.