With East Baton Rouge Parish voters set to decide this fall on the mayor and Metro Council for the next four years, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister is urging residents to look past the political rhetoric and demand that the candidates provide real explanations on how they plan to achieve the lofty goals they’re bound to talk about ad nauseam in the months leading up to the Nov. 6 election day. As McCollister notes that every candidate is sure to tout crime reduction, education improvement and job creation as top priorities, and most will also say they don’t want to pay more taxes for any of it. “These issues are all critical to our future, but saying that is the easy part,” McCollister writes. “Are we all going to let the candidates get off the hook by just printing a couple of sentences on a push card or showing a few ‘keywords’ on your television screen accompanied by images of flashing red lights and the sound of sirens screaming?” The election should be about ideas for moving Baton Rouge forward and the plans candidates have for putting those ideas into motion, McCollister says. As for some progressive ideas the candidates should be thinking about, McCollister points to the cover story of this month’s 225 magazine (a sister publication of Business Report), in which a pop-up think tank discusses “11 ways to improve Baton Rouge”. “All 11 ideas are worth your attention, but I like three in particular and want to suggest you think about making them part of the upcoming elections and ask your candidates about them,” McCollister says. Find out which ideas he likes most in the full column here; and send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
Today’s poll question: If the election were today, who would get your vote in the mayoral race?
