State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, has filed a bill that would take $100,000 in locally generated sales tax dollars away from the Capital Area Transit System and give it, instead, to the Baton Rouge Sports Foundation.
House Bill 958 redirects the money from the East Baton Rouge Parish Enhancement Fund, a pot of money collected from local sales taxes that is appropriated by the Legislature. Under the existing law, $100,000 goes to CATS and $100,000 goes to the Sports Foundation, with the remainder going to the Baton Rouge River Center. Marcelle’s bill, if approved, would redirect CATS’ portion of the funds to the Sports Foundation.
Marcelle, a former Metro Council member and outspoken critic of CATS, says she filed the measure because CATS doesn’t need the money and the sports foundation does.
“Since CATS got the (dedicated property) tax, they either don’t need that money or they should restructure the way they are spending it,” she says. “So I thought it was better that we give it to the sports foundation.”
In 2012 voters approved a 10.6-mil dedicated property tax to fund CATS upgrades and system improvements. The tax generates approximately $18 million annually for CATS. Marcelle doesn’t think the agency has much to show for it.
“They were doing better before they had money than they are now,” she says. “They don’t need any more.”
CATS Board Chairman Jim Brandt disagrees.
“We are very concerned about it,” he says. “Every dollar is important to us and we will do what we can to convince Rep. Marcelle that we should keep the allocation as it is.”
The CATS annual operating budget is approximately $23 million, so as a practical matter the loss of $100,000 won’t make much difference. But Brandt says the bill is troubling and he hopes the board will go on the record opposing it.
Brandt will introduce the matter for discussion at a special board meeting being held later today to discuss replacing outgoing CEO Bob Mirabito, who announced his resignation earlier this week, effective May 6. The board cannot legally take a position on the measure until its April 19 regular board meeting.
Given the relative insignificance of the funds involved, it might seem as though Marcelle’s bill is largely a symbolic way to poke the beleaguered agency in the eye. But Marcelle says it is not intended as such. Asked whether she might withdraw the legislation now that Mirabito, of whom she has been particularly critical, has announced he will resign, Marcelle says no.
“It is my intention to move forward with the bill,” she says.
—Stephanie Riegel
