DALLAS — Voters in East Baton Rouge Parish, La., on Saturday overwhelmingly opposed a request for tax hikes to support $901 million of bonds that would finance infrastructure upgrades and economic development efforts.
Of the almost 75,000 voters participating, 48,851 opposed the proposal to increase the sales tax by 0.5% and raise the property tax rate by 9.9 mills, with 25,766 voting in favor.
The election drew 26.3% of the registered voters in the parish, according to the Louisiana secretary of state’s office.
A spokesman for the parish clerk of court’s office said the turnout was considered heavy, with several precincts reporting 30% of registered voters going to the polls, twice the 15% that usually participate in a special tax election.
Voters last year narrowly rejected a similar $989 million bond package. Nearly 178,000 votes were cast in the November 2008 election, with the measure defeated by a slim margin of 3,071 votes.
Parish Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden, who proposed the 2008 and the 2009 bond requests as a way to repair aging infrastructure and provide an economic boost to Louisiana’s capital city, declined to say if he intends a third bond referendum after almost 64% of the voters said no to his revised second request.
“Everybody in Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish has to decide whether we’re going to go another 50 years without doing major drainage projects and other things that are important,” Holden told reporters at a post-election news conference.
“I just want to get to the point where we can trust one another and move forward,” he said. “We cannot continue to be the only major city along the Mississippi River that turns its back on the river.”
Officials in the Baton Rouge Tea Party, which opposed the bond package, said the proposal would have been more attractive without the $225 million Alive educational and entertainment venue that would have been financed from bond proceeds.
Dwight Hudson, a spokesman for the group, said Saturday’s vote was a clear message that the parish government should not be involved in the Alive project.
“We’re ready to take care of our vital infrastructure needs but we’re not interested in assuming the risks of the Alive project,” Hudson said.
The parish Metropolitan Council in July established a special taxing district to support the bonds that excluded three suburbs that voted against the plan in November 2008.
The council later voided that decision and created a parish-wide improvement district to issue the debt.
In October, the council deadlocked on a request by several councilors to delay the bond election until 2010 due to unresolved questions over control of the Alive site in downtown Baton Rouge.
In addition to the $225 million Alive project, the bonds would have provided: $178.3 million for drainage improvements, $135 million for a new parish prison, $92.5 million for a public safety complex, $72.4 million for improvements and expansions at the city’s downtown convention center, $68.8 million for a parking garage adjacent to the center, $45.7 million to replace and synchronize traffic signals in Baton Rouge, $44 million for a juvenile justice facility, and $38.8 million for city hall consolidation.
