Meeting on Alive delayed
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Despite the hopes of Baton Rouge-area lawmakers, there will be a delay in any meeting with Mayor-President Kip Holden to discuss issues swirling around the proposed Alive riverfront attraction.
State Rep. Steve Carter, chairman of the Capital Region Legislative Delegation, said Thursday he wants Holden to attend the delegation’s Tuesday meeting.
The mayor’s spokesman, Scott Dyer, said Holden will be unable to meet with the delegation Tuesday because of a scheduling conflict.
Holden hopes to meet with the delegation next month, Dyer said.
“(He) is juggling his schedule so that he can meet with the delegation on the second date,” Dyer said by e-mail.
Holden is pushing a $225 million riverfront park as part of a $901 million capital improvements tax package. The proposal is on the Nov. 14 ballot.
Meanwhile, a group of nearly 60 Baton Rouge Tea Party members met Thursday in a conference room at the Bluebonnet Regional Branch Library to start organizing an effort to defeat the tax proposal.
The group, which plans to hold “Town Hall” events in Central, Zachary and southeast Baton Rouge in the coming weeks, is recruiting volunteers to work as precinct and neighborhood captains to walk their communities and encourage neighbors to vote down the tax proposal.
Several unresolved issues have arisen in recent days about the Alive project, including questions about who owns the land where the park would be located.
The site is between the Mississippi River and the railroad tracks off River Road near Hollywood Casino. The state and Illinois Central Railroad Co. battled in court for years without resolving who owns the property. The ownership question doomed earlier plans for a park on the site.
If the ownership is resolved, $40 million is needed to elevate the flood-prone property. The Holden administration is seeking that money from the state.
Gov. Bobby Jindal said last week the $40 million could come from the state construction budget if the Capital Region Legislative Delegation considers the project a priority.
“That’s going to be an interesting discussion,” Carter, R-Baton Rouge, said Thursday.
He said he wants an overview of the proposal as well as answers to questions about the land ownership.
One concern, Carter said, is how much borrowing capacity the governor will carve out for the delegation in the state construction budget.
Last year, the governor gave the delegation about $50 million to spend on projects, he said.
If the amount is the same this year, it would be tough to persuade the delegation to spend the bulk of it on Holden’s proposal, Carter said.
The Capital Region Legislative Delegation covers the parishes of Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana.
State Rep. Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge, said the land ownership issue needs to be clarified before any decision is made on supporting the project.
State Rep. Michael Jackson, No Party-Baton Rouge, declined comment on the possible problems with the proposal.
State Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, said he did not even know there was a possibility of the state backing $40 million for the project.
“I haven’t had the chance to visit with other members of the delegation about it. I have to say that’s news to me,” he said.
Claitor compared the riverfront park to shopping at the supermarket on a tight budget.
He said the priority has to be on sustenance rather than the extras that stores stock in the checkout line.
He questioned whether a riverfront park trumps transportation needs and other expenses.
Claitor said his priority is a rail line between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
At the Baton Rouge Tea Party gathering, legislative action committee chairman Dwight Hudson, of Central, said the first of four meetings to marshal opposition to the tax proposal is scheduled 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kristenwood Reception Hall on Greenwell Springs Road in Central. He said other meetings are planned for Zachary and southeast Baton Rouge.
“It’s going to take some legwork to make sure this bond doesn’t go through,” Hudson said.
The capital improvements tax package, like one that narrowly failed last year, consists of a half-cent sales tax increase and a 9.9-mill property tax. If approved, the taxes would fund drainage system improvements, a new public safety complex and parish prison, light synchronization, riverfront development and other projects.
The Holden administration has said the $225 million Alive project is an essential part of the tax package because it would generate economic activity, create jobs and enable the bonds to be repaid in 17 years rather than 30 years. Alive has been likened to a small-scale version of Epcot Center, featuring an aquarium, amphitheater thrill rides and other educational and cultural attractions that would be operated by the Audubon Nature Institute.
John Kovalcik, a Baton Rouge Tea Party member, said he would vote for the infrastructure and public safety improvements if they were on the ballot as a separate issue from the Alive and downtown economic development projects. He said the infrastructure improvements are badly needed, but he is skeptical of the projections of economic activity Alive would generate.
“We’ve come up with a ‘Just Say No To Kipland’ theme for the campaign,” Kovalcik said. “We’re specifically targeting the Alive project.”
Hudson said recent revelations that the ownership of the land for Alive is in dispute and that $40 million in state funds might not be available to prepare the land for construction is “definitely a game changer” when it comes to prospects for defeating the tax package.
He said he always considered Holden’s administration to be trustworthy, “but on this one he’s got big questions to answer for us.”
The mayor has said he plans a briefing early next week to address the questions that have arisen with the Alive project.
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