The need for the Bridge Center hasn’t changed since 2016, say local officials. What is changing, however, is the messaging behind selling the concept, slated to make a comeback on the Dec. 8 ballot as a 1.5-mill property tax proposal.
As Business Report details in a recent feature, there’s general agreement that there wasn’t a clear-cut communications strategy two years ago, the first time civic leaders tried to push a property tax to fund the center’s operations.
Also bad was the timing, at least from a public relations standpoint: The proposal was not only on a tax-heavy ballot, but also the election was just four months after the August 2016 flood, leaving many voters cash-strapped after repairing their homes.
For those reasons—as well as a failure to address cultural concerns about mental health in the black community—the tax narrowly failed, 51% to 49%, when it first went before voters in December 2016. Absent operational funds in the tax defeat aftermath, the center has yet to open.
But, say mental health experts and law enforcement officers, the need for the Bridge Center in Baton Rouge still exists. And while the revived proposal has some factors working against it—such as sharing the ballot with the MoveBR sales tax roads proposal as well as
Baton Rouge’s historic aversion to parishwide taxes, especially those on property—Bridge Center board members say they’re optimistic a new and improved communications strategy will work to their favor.
“We’re trying to avoid the term ‘Bridge Center’ in our messaging,” says Phillip LaFargue, a partner at Emergent Method, which is assisting Ourso Beychock with campaign outreach. “We don’t want people to think it’s associated with the roads tax.”
Will different messaging on second attempt help the Bridge Center tax proposal win voter approval?
Also read: Will repackaging the updated road’s tax plan make a difference this time around? Read the full Business Report cover story.
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