Plaintiff challenging CATS tax asks supporters to send protest letters to sheriff

With his lawsuit challenging new CATS taxes at a temporary standstill, the Baton Rouge man who filed the suit in July is now asking those who support his position to formally protest the taxes by sending letters to Sheriff Sid Gautreaux’s office. Milton Graugnard, a Cajun Industries executive, says the protest letters effectively request the sheriff’s office to hold their taxes in an escrow account and not turn them over to the transit system until his case is resolved in court. “It’s a secondary means for anyone who has paid the tax already or is going to pay the tax” to challenge it, Graugnard says of the letters. In a recent letter sent out to his supporters that provides an update on the case, Graugnard even includes a sample letter, which you can see here. Graugnard is asking people to send the letters before Dec. 31, when the taxes officially come due. While a state court judge denied in October a CATS request to throw out the suit—which contends the 10.6-mill tax approved by voters in Baton Rouge and Baker in April is unconstitutional—more recent rulings have not gone Graugnard’s way. One of his attorneys, Brian Juban, says the First Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay on the case at CATS’ behest on Thursday, and that a request to amend that decision to allow the case to move forward with the discovery phase was also denied on Monday. “As of now it’s a full stay, meaning all proceedings before the district court are frozen,” Juban says. —Steve Sanoski