Mayor Kip Holden used today’s State of the City address to sell his plans for several major capital improvement and public safety projects that would be paid for with proceeds of a $335.6 million bond issue financed by a 25-year, 0.25% parish-wide sales tax. The proposed tax would exclude food for home consumption and prescription drugs.
According to documents released by the administration, the tax—if approved by voters in an election this spring—would go into effect July 1 and would be dedicated solely to those projects outlined in the plan. They would include a $204.4 million parish prison complex; a $50 million juvenile services and court facility; a $31 million public safety complex; a $27.9 million judicial annex facility, and a $16.6 million crisis assessment and restoration center.
In addition, the tax would fund a $4 million addition and renovation to the Sheriff Civil Division’s offices in City Hall, as well as a $1.4 million secure prisoner entryway at the 19th Judicial District Court building downtown. See an overview of the bond proposal released by Holden’s administration.
The new parish prison would have 2,500 beds and accommodations for 250 work release prisoners. The new juvenile facility would have 88 beds. The Metro Council is scheduled to vote Jan. 14 on sending the measure to voters.
In his annual address to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, Holden said the plan will save taxpayers money in the long run, in part by enabling the parish to house more of its own prisoners rather than paying other parishes to incarcerate them. Holden also said the crisis assessment center will save money by treating rather than incarcerating those with mental illness, adding that emergency rooms have become a “revolving door” that are not helping the ill, either.
“We need to create a mental health center that will stop treating mental illness as a crime and start treating it as the disease it is,” the mayor said.
The proposed bond issue is the administration’s fourth attempt to secure approval for public safety and capital improvements. In 2011, the Metro Council voted the measure down before it reached voters. Voters previously rejected bond measures at the polls in 2008 and 2009. Also during his address today, Holden lauded other capital improvement projects the city-parish has undertaken; among them are sewer improvement projects and the Green Light Project geared toward improving the city-parish’s roadways.
Holden called the sewer rehabilitation program the largest of its kind in the city’s history. It consists of 110 separate projects, 63 of which are complete and 20 of which are under construction. The overhaul is scheduled to be complete in 2018.
Holden also touted the city’s continued economic growth by highlighting the downtown building boom and the growth of the film industry. Film projects brought $180 million in direct spending to the city in 2014. Holden says another three projects are scheduled to start this month.
In stark contrast to last year’s address when Holden criticized the ongoing attempts to incorporate part of the parish as the city of St. George, the plans were not even mentioned at this afternoon’s meeting.
“I never say never,” Holden said when asked if he thought the plans were no longer a threat. “Baton Rouge has come together over the past year and realized that we can’t live separately.” —Stephanie Riegel and Kelly Connelly
