Mayor Sharon Weston Broome is set to take the first steps to bring a revived traffic tax to the voters with its introduction at Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting.
The 30-year, half-cent sales tax would generate an estimated $600 million to improve roads, draining and landscaping, as well as improve existing corridors in the parish. Around 40 projects, which were pitched with last year’s proposed 5-mill property tax that was rejected by the Metro Council, would be funded through the tax.
Also Wednesday, Broome will introduce a revived tax proposal to fund a mental health and substance abuse center along with Metro Council members Tara Wicker and Barbara Freiberg.
The 1.5-mill property tax, previously estimated to generate some $5.8 million a year, would fund the proposed Bridge Center. It’s designed to divert people struggling with mental illnesses from going to jail. The tax proposal was defeated at the ballot box in 2016, with 51% of voters voting it down. It was set to be reintroduced last year before being yanked from the agenda.
The new proposal will be similar to the one voters rejected, but Wicker says the parish is in a different place than it was for the past election, when people were readjusting to life after the August 2016 flood.
Should the council approve introducing the tax proposals at Wednesday’s meeting, they would be up for public hearings at the council’s Aug. 8 meeting. If approved for the ballot at that meeting, the taxes would appear on the Dec. 8 ballot.
Also Wednesday, the council will consider waiving certain provisions of a parish ordinance for Le Chien Brewing Company, which restricts businesses from receiving alcohol permits if located within 300 feet of a church. The microbrewery is looking to open on Highland Road across the street from New Rising Sun Baptist Church.
The Metro Council convenes at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers at City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
