In 2012, Baton Rouge voters passed a 10.6-mill dedicated property tax to fund the Capital Area Transit System for the next 10 years. The $16-million-a-year tax was controversial in a parish where the electorate is generally hostile to new taxes and the city-parish budget is handcuffed by dedications.
But as Business Report details in a feature from the current issue, advocates of the tax—which included business and community groups—argued a permanent source of dedicated funding was needed to modernize, expand and improve the beleaguered local bus system.
To win the support of a skeptical public, CATS agreed to an ambitious list of deliverables that included more routes, express lines, bus shelters, and additional transfer hubs, among other things. Grassroots organization Together Baton Rouge even campaigned for the tax, promising to hold CATS accountable with quarterly report cards monitoring the agency’s progress.
But initially things didn’t get better. The CEO was fired. Fare box money went missing. A board member resigned for stealing agency funds while the board chairman stepped down amidst the scandals. Even some of CATS’ early efforts to deliver what should have been wins turned into losses.
“The first two years after the tax, anyone you interviewed would have told you things were dire,” Baton Rouge Area Chamber President and CEO Adam Knapp says. “Any judgment calls on where CATS is now is relative to where they were two or three years ago.”
Surprisingly, assessments of the agency’s performance—halfway through the life of the 10-year tax—by BRAC, local elected officials and the agency itself are relatively positive. Significant changes have taken place over the past three years, and the agency is making progress toward accomplishing the deliverables it agreed to in 2012.
Many of the positive developments at CATS over the past three years actually began under former CEO Bob Mirabito, who cleaned up the agency’s books, rooted out dead weight and the petty corruption that had been rampant within the agency.
Read the full story, which includes sidebars on the watchdog role Together Baton Rouge was supposed to play as well as the status of CATS’ 2012 promises. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
