Bond issue goes down in defeat
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Mayor-President Kip Holden’s $901 million capital improvements tax package was soundly defeated by East Baton Rouge Parish voters Saturday.
The tax package failed with 64 percent of voters against the proposal and 36 percent in favor, according to complete but unofficial returns from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.
The vote total was 45,851 against to 25,766 in favor, according to the unofficial returns.
Holden, a second-term mayor who campaigned vigorously for the bond issue, had described its passage as critical to the city’s future development.
He did not respond to the Advocate’s requests for an interview Saturday night, made through his aides.
But he told a television reporter that the problems the bond issue were aimed at addressing “are not going away.”
Prior to Saturday’s vote, Holden would not say if he would go back to voters next year and try for a third time to pass a tax package. A similar measure failed by a narrow margin during last year’s Nov. 4 presidential election.
The tax package that voters rejected Saturday was backed by the business community, as represented by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, and labor and several professional groups.
But the proposed tax increases also drew organized opposition from the Baton Rouge Tea Party, which actively campaigned for its defeat.
It also was criticized by some residents who said they didn’t like the bond issue being presented as an all-or-nothing proposition that combined the proposed $225 million Alive riverfront attraction with infrastructure and public safety projects.
“I think Baton Rouge has sent a clear message that we’re not interested in having the city own the Alive project,” said Dwight Hudson, a spokesman for the Baton Rouge Tea Party group. “We’re ready to take care of our vital infrastructure needs but we’re not interested in assuming the risks of the Alive project.”
The tax package consisted of a half-cent sales tax increase and a 9.9-mill property tax.
The taxes would have funded downtown development projects, drainage system improvements, a new public safety complex and parish prison, traffic light synchronization and a new juvenile services facility.
The public safety and infrastructure improvements accounted for $534.7 million of the tax package — about 60 percent of the total. The remaining $366.3 million was to go toward building two parking garages downtown, to expand and upgrade the River Center and to construct the Alive project.
Metro Councilman Joel Boé, one of three council members behind an unsuccessful effort last month to pull the bond issue from the ballot and rework it, said he wasn’t surprised by the election results. He said they reflect what he and other council members were hearing from their constituents.
“They lost the opportunity to take it back and work out the kinks and build more voter confidence,” he said. “It was a missed opportunity to do it right.”
Boé said it is a “shame” that badly needed projects like a new public safety complex and parish prison were “held hostage to Alive.”
But Councilwoman Tara Wicker said Alive made sense because it would have spurred private development and created jobs. That would have allowed the bond issue to be paid off 12 years early, saving the taxpayers money, she said.
“I think a lot of people didn’t have a good understanding about what the intent of the Alive project is,” Wicker said.
Fred Sliman, a spokesman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s office, said voter turnout this year was heavy for a special election on a tax issue.
He said several precincts reported seeing voter turnouts of 30 percent or more. Normally, he said, a turnout of 10 percent to 15 percent would be expected for such an election.
This year’s bond proposal had a rocky start.
Holden successfully had the Metro Council create a special taxing district that would have excluded residents in Central, Baker and Zachary from voting on the bond issue. But after a public outcry, he asked the council to go back to making it a parishwide vote.
The mayor also rebuffed efforts by some council members to split the bond issue up so residents could vote separately on public safety and infrastructure improvements and on the Alive project.
Holden said Alive was essential, describing it as an economic engine that would spur hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment downtown and create thousands of jobs.
He cited a study by an LSU economist that said the economic activity from Alive would have generated enough tax revenue to allow the 30-year bond issue to be paid off 12 years early.
Alive’s supporters described it as an educational, research and entertainment venue that would be an iconic attraction for Baton Rouge, drawing thousands of visitors downtown.
The plan called for building an aquarium, an outdoor amphitheater and scientific research facilities run by LSU — all tied to a theme of the Mississippi River and great rivers of the world.
Alive would have included what one of the project’s designers, Tom Hennes of Thinc Design, described as a “thrill ride” allowing visitors to take a simulated flight to the source of the Mississippi River.
Another attraction would have been a 4-D simulation letting visitors experience the power of a hurricane.
The Holden administration was working with the Audubon Nature Institute to operate Alive. The nonprofit runs the aquarium, zoo, an IMAX theater and other attractions in New Orleans.
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