Mayor may retry failed tax bond

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 20, 2009 - Page: 1A

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Mayor-President Kip Holden said Thursday a north-south split among voters was partly to blame for Saturday’s defeat of his $901 million capital improvements tax package; nevertheless, he said he might consider reintroducing a third bond proposal to voters before his term ends.

“I’m not going to rule it out,” Holden said. “But on the other hand, I’m not going to constantly go out there and beat my head up against the wall of resistance … ”

The mayor made the comments Thursday morning just before he spoke at Make an Impact, a workshop at LSU on climate change and emissions reduction.

He opened his comments to the group with a play on words of a well-known phrase used by the movie character James Bond: “After the bond issue, I’m going by ‘Kip Bond’; I’m shaken but not stirred.”

The audience laughed and applauded.

Voters soundly defeated Holden’s proposal Saturday with 64 percent voting no and 36 percent in favor, according to unofficial returns.

A similar bond proposal was defeated Nov. 4, 2008, by a narrow margin during the presidential election.

While they campaigned very little for the proposal in 2008, Holden and his chief administrative officer, Mike Futrell, spent recent weeks stumping across the parish in support of the tax package.

In the days since the defeat, Holden said, he and his staff have been analyzing the tax package and looking for alternative funding sources.

“We’re trying to determine whether we can get federal earmarks and/or other allocations from Congress so we can continue on some of the projects that we have in mind,” he said.

The mayor said he is also looking at private funding or a private/public partnership for some of the projects.

Holden, however, maintained that voters should be aware that a tax increase to pay for infrastructure improvements is unavoidable.

“I don’t want anybody to be under the misconception that we’re going to solve all of this without having to address a bond issue at some point,” he said.