B.R. housing market named as one of nation's best

More good news about the Baton Rouge housing market: A real estate forecasting service says the Capital Region is one of the 10 best cities in terms of future home prices. Local Market Monitor, which produces the Home Price Forecast for more than 300 cities, says home values should remain level locally over the next 12 months. Officials with Local Market Monitor credit the same factors for Baton Rouge's stability that have been repeatedly said during the national housing crisis: Home prices in the Capital Region never got out of hand, and economic growth has remained steady locally. Other cities with populations of more than 600,000 in the top 10 include Dallas, Houston and Rochester, N.Y. Alexandria, Monroe and Shreveport-Bossier City made the top 10 list for future home prices in cities with populations under 600,000. The worst housing markets were mostly cities in California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, where price speculation got out of hand, places such as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Taxing district, cultural district top Metro Council meeting

Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting will be chockfull of issues, from the controversial Perkins Road Cultural District to the carved-up taxing district and a country music festival.

The Capital Improvements District—which would establish a taxing district for Baton Rouge and unincorporated areas of the parish—is for introduction only, the first step in sending a bond issue to the voters in November. Details of the bond issue will be worked out in the coming weeks. The district excludes Baker, Central and Zachary, three cities that came out strong against the $989 million capital improvements plan that was narrowly voted down in November.

The council will hear public input about the Perkins Road Cultural District. Council members Tara Wicker and Smokie Bourgeois have set up a meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at the City Park Gallery, though Bourgeois says he doesn’t expect a big turnout because of LSU-Texas College World Series game. Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker believes the vote Wednesday will be deferred.

Also up for public comment is the city contributing $300,000 toward a country music festival scheduled for Memorial Day weekend 2010 at Tiger Stadium. The organizers of New Orleans' world-famous JazzFest are planning the Bayou Country Superfest and hope to attract big name performers such as Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks and George Strait.—Rebecca Breeden

Lawmakers agree to spend $94M from megafund

Lawmakers have agreed to spend nearly $94 million from Louisiana's economic development megafund, nearly depleting the account. Today's vote by the Legislature's joint budget committee was to spend $67 million for a new car plant planned in the Monroe area and $27 million for a chemical plant to be built in Iberville Parish. Both projects were announced last week. The San Diego-based V-Vehicle Co. says it will have 1,400 jobs at its Monroe assembly plant by 2012. But the project is dependent on federal loans and other sources of financing that have yet to be finalized. Meanwhile, SNF Holding Co. says it will create 500 new jobs in Plaquemine within five years at its planned plant to make polymers, including some that can be used in oil wells to produce more petroleum.

Little Village owners opening upscale bar

The owners of the Little Village are opening an upscale wine and martini bar underneath the downtown restaurant. Willies on the River is set to open tonight in the location that used to be the Thirsty Tiger. The bar is named after the ghost that reportedly haunts the building, says Wanda Calkins, general manager of the Little Village and Willies. Willie was a stable hand who was killed in 1848, when he was crushed by a falling wall at what is now the site of the bar. "Willie never left," Calkins says. "We decided to name this place after him and give him a permanent home." Willies replaces The Vault, an upscale wine bar that closed a few months ago. Calkins says the area was gutted and remodeled. "It's very upscale and comfortable," she says. "It's someplace where you would love to come and sit and feel at home." Guests will be able to order appetizers from the Little Village while drinking at the bar, and there will be a dining room for private parties.—Timothy Boone

John Maginnis: Roemers challenge Jindal on education

Former Gov. Buddy Roemer and his son, Chas, recently upbraided Gov. Bobby Jindal for his handling of education issues, John Maginnis says. First, Chas Roemer, a member of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, publicly criticized Jindal for supporting alternative high school diploma legislation. "Young Roemer charged that politics is keeping Jindal from tackling fundamental education problems that are holding the state back," Maginnis writes. A few days later, Buddy Roemer led a coalition of former governors who urged Jindal against making deep budget cuts to higher education. "By now, Gov. Bobby Jindal has about had his fill of the Roemer clan," says Maginnis. Read the full column here.

(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)

House blocks tax break delay

Louisiana House members today used a rare procedural maneuver to block a Senate proposal aimed at easing higher education budget cuts by postponing a scheduled tax break for three years. The House approved a motion by Rep. Joseph Lopinto, R-Metairie, that returned the bill to the Senate, which had amended the measure to put off the tax break for certain individual filers. The motion by Lopinto was to ask the Senate to "recede" its amendment, meaning House members wanted to ask senators to consider removing their amendment that would delay the tax break. The 61-37 vote returned the bill to the Senate. A majority of House members oppose the Senate proposal to delay a 2007 law that allows individual taxpayers to deduct all of their excess itemized deductions compared with the current 65%. The change is scheduled to take effect for 2009 tax forms, but the Senate wants to delay that change until taxpayers fill out their 2012 forms. The resulting $118 million generated next year would go to universities, community colleges and technical schools, to lessen layoffs and other cut backs.

Chelsea's bill headed to governor

A bill that ensures restaurants can offer drink specials and live entertainment received final passage today with a 22-14 vote of the Senate. The measure, Senate Bill 136, arose from disputes between restaurants and state Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Murphy Painter, including one centered around Chelsea's Café on Perkins Road. Chelsea's was fined and temporarily lost its liquor license at the end of April after Painter claimed the restaurant operated as a bar because it shut down its kitchens after 10 p.m., then had live music with only liquor being served. Chelsea's is now keeping its kitchen open late at night. The bill by Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport, would allow such establishments to keep their restaurant licenses if they meet requirements that include drawing at least half their income from the sale of food and nonalcoholic drinks.

B.R. firm's artificial islands making waves

Not long ago, Floating Island Environmental Solutions, a Baton Rouge company launched in September, got a phone call from Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, which needed help with its filthy swan ponds. Floating Island, which the zoo found on the Internet, makes a product called BioHaven Floating Island—large mats of layered polyester fiber (recycled from plastic water bottles), planted with vegetation and launched into bodies of water. The product mimics Northern Wisconsin's floating peat bogs, known for their ability to keep bodies of water clean via microbes that eat contaminants and nutrients. Feedback on the product has been good, says Tigue Bonneval, head of sales and business development. "There's so much surface for microbes to grow, it's just a concentrated wetlands effect," he says. "They eat the contaminants, which go out of water and into the plants." The product is also useful for wetland restoration and erosion control. This afternoon, the company launched two of its islands at the severely eroded Bayou Bienvenue near New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward—a project with students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Also, the company is doing a three-year study with the National Resources Conservation Service at Bayou Savauge to get scientific data on BioHaven's performance. "We want to know exactly what it's doing," Bonneval says. "We don't know the numbers, but we know it works."—Steve Clark

Obama talks tougher on Iran violence

President Barack Obama today declared the United States and the entire world "appalled and outraged" by Iran's violent efforts to crush dissent and for the first time expressed significant doubt about the legitimacy of the national election at the root of the upheaval. The president suggested that Iran would face consequences for brutally beating back protest, warning that the way the country responds in the days ahead will shape its relationship with other countries, including the United States. He would not specify what any punishment might be. Five months into his presidency, Obama addressed reporters under mounting pressure from Republican lawmakers who have accused him of being too passive in challenging Iran's crackdown. Obama said he has been consistent and scoffed at the suggestion that Republicans influenced his stand. On the home front, Obama suggested that he ultimately would be willing to accept a health care plan without a government-run option for consumers. And on the recession, he said it was too soon to propose a second stimulus plan to jolt the economy, even as he acknowledged the unemployment rate is headed over 10%.

Real Estate Weekly has news about brownfields

Real Estate Weekly is out with news about a popular tax credit for brownfields that's set to expire, despite the support of groups ranging from Louisiana Economic Development to the Louisiana NAACP, a property sale on Jones Creek, a statewide honor for a local homebuilder and the latest columns from Brian Andrews and Tom Cook. Read the newsletter here.

News roundup: Holden signs agreement with Turkish city ... U.S. existing home sales rise less than expected

Part of economic development trip: Mayor Kip Holden signed a sister city agreement with Malatya, Turkey, as part of a weeklong economic development trip. The agreement aims to promote development between the two cities, with investment conferences, cultural events and ongoing business talks. Malatya, which has a population of 400,000, produces about 65% of the worlds dried apricots and is a center for textiles. Holden says Turkish officials have asked him for help in establishing a new apricot distributorship in the United States. Holden is set to meet with the prime minister of Turkey and members of parliament today. Baton Rouge has a number of sister cities, including Córdoba, México, Taichung, Taiwan, and Aix-en-Provence, France.

Some improvement: Sales of previously occupied homes rose modestly from April to May, the third monthly increase this year, but signs of a housing recovery are fragile at best. The National Association of Realtors says home sales rose 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 4.77 million, up from a downwardly revised rate of 4.66 million in April. The results, however, missed analysts' expectations, and stock markets edged lower on the news. About one in three homes sold last month was a foreclosure or distressed sale, dragging down the median price to $173,000 -- 16.8% below a year ago. One bright spot, however, was that the number of unsold homes on the market at the end of May fell 3.5% to nearly 3.8 million. That's a 9.6-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with about six months in a normal market.