The Bond Issue: Part Four

• By GREG GARLAND
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 4, 2009 - Page: 1A

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This is the fourth and final part of a four-part series on the Nov. 14 bond issue:

• Sunday: Who pays the tab? How the 9.9-mill property tax and half-cent sales tax increase will affect people who live, shop and do business in East Baton Rouge Parish.
• Monday: A close look at plans for infrastructure improvements — drainage work, a new public safety complex, new Parish Prison and similar projects. What’s included in the tax package and why.
• Tuesday: Examining plans to expand the River Center and build parking garages to attract more convention business and promote economic development. Will the strategy work?
• Wednesday: The Alive project — the educational, recreational and scientific research venue on the Mississippi River. What are the potential benefits and potential costs for taxpayers.

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To Mayor-President Kip Holden, the proposed Alive riverfront attraction is key to making his $901 million tax package work.

Holden and other Alive supporters say the project — described as an entertainment, educational and research venue — would spur hundreds of millions of dollars in private development downtown.

They contend the tax revenue created by new business would allow the 30-year bond issue to be paid off 12 years early. The bulk of the borrowed funds would pay for new public facilities, drainage work and traffic-signal synchronization.

But critics have targeted the $225 million Alive project as ill-conceived and too risky a venture.

Officials have yet to resolve longstanding legal questions over the land where Alive would be built, to the south of Hollywood Casino. They say they are negotiating with a railroad company that claims development rights on part of the property.

And it’s not clear where $40 million needed to build up the riverfront land Alive would occupy — money that is not included in the $225 million construction costs — will come from given the state’s dire financial situation.

Holden has noted that if any problems arise that prevent Alive from going forward, the $225 million designated for it could not legally be diverted for other purposes. The bond issue would be reduced by that amount and the debt paid off sooner, he said.

The controversy over Alive nearly derailed the bond package, which goes to voters in a special election Nov. 14.

Some members of the Metro Council unsuccessfully tried to split Alive from the rest of the bond issue and later attempted to postpone the election for the entire tax package.

Meanwhile, the tax package has drawn organized opposition. Anti-tax activists, such as the Baton Rouge Tea Party, question whether the economic projections for Alive are realistic.

Defending Alive