Two Baton Rouge Metro Council members who represent north Baton Rouge and voted for an economic opportunity zone in the area expressed surprise this morning after learning Mayor Kip Holden has vetoed an ordinance creating the zone.
In a letter sent to the council members Wednesday, Holden announced the veto, saying he feels it “lacks a comprehensive strategy and fails to look at the root cause of decline with boundary lines” and provides “tax breaks without a real plan.”
Chauna Banks-Daniel, the council representative for District 2, says neither the mayor nor any of his staff expressed any concern over the ordinance, which has been on the public’s radar for about six months as it slowly moved through the council.
“I understand and accept that the mayor’s focus, legacy and interests are in south Baton Rouge and downtown, and I did not think for the second time in 30 days he would nullify the efforts of two council members who were trying to set a pace for economic development in north Baton Rouge,” Banks-Daniel says, referring to Holden not giving her #NBR Blue Ribbon Commission funding.
She says she also finds it hypocritical of the mayor to say he made both decisions under the context that the city-parish Finance Department is still trying to figure out how all the bills passed by the state Legislature in the final minutes of the recent special session will affect the city-parish since he recently gave $100,000 to the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority and supported the expansion of the Downtown Development District. Banks-Daniel had requested $100,000 for her commission but offered no specifics on how the money would be spent and said she would leave that to its members. A number of her fellow council members said they would not support it due in part to the lack of details.
Attempts to reach city-parish Finance Director Marsha Hanlon were unsuccessful before this morning’s deadline.
The economic opportunity zone would provide property tax abatements for up to 10 years to developers and small business owners. The council would be in charge of handing the abatements out. Councilman John Delgado, who is running for mayor, proposed the economic opportunity zone late last year as a way to spur economic development in north Baton Rouge.
Delgado, in an interview with Daily Report on Wednesday afternoon after learning of the veto, said he was shocked, disappointed and “grossly disappointed that the first economic incentive for north Baton Rouge to come out of this council in the last 30 years has been vetoed by a mayor from north Baton Rouge.”
Donna Collins-Lewis, who represents District 6, says she, too, was surprised at the decision. She says she understands Holden’s reasoning, but also trusts that the council, even after she is gone, would use sound judgment and reasoning in deciding who would get the tax abatement. She adds she did not have any conversation with Holden about possible concerns over the ordinance before he vetoed it.
The council will try to override the veto Wednesday. Council Administrator Casey Cashio says the council will need eight votes of the entire council, not just the ones who attend the meeting, to override the veto, per the city-parish Plan of Government. The ordinance passed 9-0 last week with two members absent for the vote and one member abstaining from the vote.
If the override vote fails, then any council member wishing to create the economic opportunity zone would have to go through the entire process of introducing the ordinance and having another vote, Cashio says.
See Holden’s letter to the council members.
—Ryan Broussard
