The Metro Council approved Mayor Kip Holden’s $830 million budget for 2015 without changes at a special meeting Tuesday evening, but not before some members voiced concern about foregoing pay raises for Department of Public Works employees and raised the idea of stripping money from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.
The council today turns to its last regular meeting of the year, at which it will introduce a resolution to approve a tax increment financing district, or TIF, for developer Mike Wampold’s planned downtown hotel at 150 N. Third St. The resolution was added to the agenda late Tuesday.
The TIF district, which would rebate a portion of sales taxes generated at the hotel to Wampold to help offset development costs, was approved by the Legislature earlier this year, but it still needs approval from the council to go into effect. The council previously deferred taking up the TIF district at its Nov. 12 meeting because paperwork was not ready at that time. Today’s introduction would set up a Jan. 14 vote on the proposal. Though Assistant Parish Attorney Bob Abbott says all of the paperwork is still not in place as of this morning, he expects it will be by the time the council votes on it next month.
Abbott says he’s also still waiting for final paperwork on a proposed TIF district for a second hotel under development downtown at the old Baton Rouge Savings & Loan Building, 400 North Blvd., before that TIF plan will go before the Metro Council. The building is to be renovated into an 89-room Holiday Inn Express.
Also tonight, the council will consider introducing a measure to call for a tax and bond election on May 2. Metro Council members were surprised when Holden’s administration placed the item on the agenda last week, and they’ve been looking for more details on the proposal ever since, though no more details have been publicly released by the mayor. If introduced today, the council would take a vote on setting the tax and bond election at its Jan. 14 meeting.
The council may also take action today to smooth out agreements between the city-parish and the companies it contracts with to put up benches at bus stops, and will consider approving a contract with an architect to design renovations for the council chambers. The council convenes for its regular meeting at 4 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
At Tuesday’s special meeting on the budget, Councilwoman Denise Marcelle made a motion to move $450,000 from BRAC’s allocation for next year to free up funds for DPW employee pay raises, but that motion was withdrawn after it became clear that no other council members would support it.
Holden’s Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel urged the council to wait until the first quarter of next year to pass employee pay raises in concert with the administration’s plan to adjust pay scales for all city-parish employees.
“You’d be setting up an unequal pay scale across the city-parish workforce,” Daniel said of Marcelle’s motion. “An administrative assistant in DPW would earn more than an administrative assistant in another department.” —Kelly Connelly
