Metro Council members yesterday pulled their plan to reintroduce a tax to fund the Bridge Center for Hope, a crisis stabilization center for the mentally ill, less than a week after taking the first step to present it to the public for another vote.
Councilwoman Tara Wicker, a Democrat representing downtown, originally brought to the council a measure to put the 1.5-mil property tax, which voters rejected in December, on the October ballot.
On the council’s agenda yesterday was an announcement that the council would take up the proposal in April; Wednesday also marked a state-imposed deadline for bringing the tax back to voters in October.
Democrat Councilwoman Chauna Banks, a key vote for supporters of the tax measure, says she told the Baton Rouge Area Foundation—which first crafted the idea for center—on Wednesday that she would not support the revived effort, noting the earlier failure of the tax as well as the release of the center’s executive director shortly thereafter, among several other concerns. BRAF has lobbied extensively for the tax to fund it.
“They still need to come back and make their rounds with the 12 (council members) and see what the concerns are,” Banks says. “I’m a mental health professional, and I was being put between a rock and a hard place.”
The new proposal was nearly identical to the tax that voters rejected last year, which would have generated about $6.1 million each year for the center over a 10-year period.
Wicker, who co-sponsored the measure with councilmembers LaMont Cole and Erika Green, says she decided to delay returning the tax measure to the ballot, opting instead to pursue more support and to educate voters of revisions.
And while Republican Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wilson suggested the proposal lacked the seven votes needed to pass, Wicker says insufficient Metro Council support was not her primary motivation.
“We want to make sure people don’t go into this with their noses held,” she says. “There were still some individuals who wanted to know what exactly would be changed.”
Wicker says she intends to aim for the November ballot, giving the Metro Council several months to take up the measure—a strategy for which Banks expressed support.
But other council members on Wednesday appeared blindsided by the move.
Republican Councilman Chandler Loupe asked questioned several times why the measure was being deleted from the agenda and whether it will return for council approval—even requesting an explanation from a representative of the mayor’s office. Assistant Chief Administrative Officer James Gilmore dodged questions about Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s position on the tax, saying the mayor’s office would respect whatever the Metro Council decides.
Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg, an LSU-area Republican, told Daily Report last week she was supportive of the proposal, citing the expected long-term cost savings to the city-parish.
Freiberg says she thought the council had secured the votes, and adds she was “surprised” at the move.
In recent weeks, BRAF has been lobbying council members and developing a more robust plan for pitching the proposal to voters.
—Sam Karlin
