To the highest bidder: Another 201 underused state vehicles are going up for public auction on Saturday. Since March, the state has sold 243 vehicles through the LPAA auctions, generating a total of $809,900 for the state, which is working to fill a $1.6 billion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. The vehicles up for auction range from 1981 to 2012 models, and include two- and four-door passenger cars, small trucks and vans, dump trucks, bucket trucks and specialty vehicles. The auction also will include computers, printers, file cabinets, office furniture, metal lathes and welders. All the items up for sale can be viewed online.
Another quarter: Following a rash of crime in the French Quarter—the city’s historic jewel and prime tourism destination—city leaders are pushing ahead with a plan to raise $2 million a year to fund policing in the busy tourism district. The Associated Press reports the City Council voted 6-0 today to put the tax proposal on an Oct. 24 ballot. The 4,000 residents of the French Quarter will decide the fate of the tax plan. French Quarter advocates and business owners support the new tax. The money would come from a quarter-cent sales tax the city would levy in the French Quarter. Combined with money from other tourism-related funds, city leaders say they hope to have about $4.5 million each year to pay for the beefed-up French Quarter policing plan. Read the full story.
On the market: If you’ve got an extra $6.5 million to spend, you can buy a French Quarter home on Gov. Nicholls Street from famed couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The Associated Press reports Latter & Blum Realtors has the listing for the five-bedroom, 7,645-square-foot home at 521 Gov. Nicholls St. that Pitt and Jolie purchased in 2007 for $3.5 million. According to the listing, the three-story, 1830s-era mansion is in excellent condition. The couple purchased the French Quarter property after Pitt established the Make It Right Foundation to fuel development of new housing in the Lower 9th Ward.
