A Senate committee approved legislation Monday creating the Bluebonnet Conference Hotel Taxing District. Senate Bill 333 by Senate President Pro Tem Sharon Weston Broome would set up a tax increment financing district, or TIF, to direct sales tax revenue from the conference hotel, which is now a half-completed Jimmy Swaggart Ministries dormitory. Developer Mike Wampold wants to build to back bonds to pay for the construction and renovation.
Broome, D-Baton Rouge, told the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee that the deteriorating dorms would be transformed into a 200-room conference hotel if Gov. Bobby Jindal signs her legislation. “It’s an eyesore right now, and we have a chance to impact the surrounding businesses, which is a medical corridor,” she says. “Once completed, it would provide more than 200 permanent jobs.” On the House side, Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, is pushing the duplicate measure, House Bill 877, but it has not yet received a hearing from the House Municipal and Parochial Affairs Committee.—Jeremy Alford
