Our Views: Holden plan fills big gaps

• Published: Oct 19, 2008 - Page: 6B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Well more than a year ago, Mayor-President Kip Holden started talking to community leaders about a big bond issue to catch up on Baton Rouge’s long-deferred building needs. Then, the idea of a bond issue to raise hundreds of millions of dollars was considered ambitious, financially and politically.

Gasoline was well under $3 per gallon at the pump, and the Dow was above 11,000. Times have changed, drastically. Still, the mayor has pushed ahead, and the voters in East Baton Rouge Parish will see the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot. The bond issue includes building projects and drainage improvements that have been talked about for decades. It includes two big economic development projects: expanding the River Center and developing the Mississippi River waterfront as an attraction for visitors.

We encourage voters to pass the bond issue.

We don’t like every part of it, and we suspect it will be hard to find someone enthusiastic about every element of such a far-reaching plan. Most of the money, however, pays for basic improvements that have been needed for a long time. The visionary idea of a riverfront park and Audubon Nature Institute project is riskier, and costs $247 million — one-fourth of the total.

Still, this is a proposal that in scope exemplifies the mayor’s belief that Baton Rouge’s growth — the post-Katrina boom and forecasts of more growth in the years ahead — cannot be sustained with small plans. A larger future for this community depends on a willingness to invest for the long term.

Aside from a riverfront attraction aimed at families that is now envisioned as Audubon Alive!, the other components of the program tend to be more conventional. While city officials and the Audubon Nature Institute have voiced enthusiasm about a collaboration, they have not yet signed a formal agreement.

By expanding the River Center and its garages with $145 million, the mayor has commitments for two new hotels to be built with $100 million in private funds. That combination would be a boost to convention business.

Another $137 million in federal funds will be obtained when the city-parish commits $208 million to drainage projects and
replacement of substandard bridges. The plan would  pay for a new parish prison ($135.3 million), a new facility for juvenile offenders ($43.4 million), eight new or rebuilt fire stations ($26.2 million), a new public safety complex for Baton Rouge police and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies ($89.7 million), and replacement and synchronization of traffic signals ($45.2 million).

While we would have preferred to vote on several bundles instead of one up-or-down vote, we can find no big case that much of this is unnecessary. Still, voters should have had a choice. As it is, they must vote for the whole package and the taxes to pay for it — 9.9 mills in property taxes, which are subject to a homestead exemption, and a half-cent sales tax.

We also have concerns that some of the drainage improvements will be done long before the 30-year term of the bonds is paid. For any major project, maintenance is an issue. The visionary in the mayor has proposed a big building project, and we hope he will commit himself to a city-parish government that steps up its performance and keeps theses new facilities up to par in future.

There is risk in passing the bond issue, particularly as the Alive! project must prove its worth in a tough marketplace for families’ discretionary dollars. Education-oriented tourism facilities aimed at families are the rage around the country; Audubon and city leaders want to use the Mississippi as a centerpiece for learning as well as entertainment. It’s still a risk.

While there are certainly going to be some jobs from new revenue from conventions and meetings, and the families that come from out of town to visit the Audubon project, the optimism of the backers is breathtaking. Economic assumptions about the project strike us as maybe a little too visionary.

The mayor’s top aide, Walter Monsour, has a typically blunt attitude: “If we wait around for a sure bet, it will never come.” That’s true.