On a Wednesday night in early August, local businessmen Jeff Koonce and Mike Wampold found themselves somewhere they probably never expected to be: attending a meeting of the East Baton Rouge Metro Council to support a tax proposal.
Koonce, general counsel of Bernhard Capital Partners and a tax attorney by trade, stepped up to the podium to speak in favor of Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s MovEBR roads tax plan, a 30-year, half-cent sales tax that would generate nearly $1 billion for major infrastructure improvements.
“I can’t believe I’m in front of a public body asking for a tax,” Koonce said as he took the mic. “We need to do something.”
Baton Rouge’s daily traffic nightmare had finally become too much to bear, as Business Report details in its latest cover package.
The traffic prompted fed up businessmen like Wampold, a local developer, as well as Koonce and Jim Bernhard—who founded The Shaw Group and now heads BCP—to throw their public support behind one of the most ambitious roads tax plans in city-parish history.
And now that yesterday’s elections are in the rear-view mirror, look for the sales campaign for this tax proposal to move front and center.
But while the tax has support from some area business leaders, it’s far from unopposed. Opposition stems from a growing public distrust, as voters have become increasingly frustrated with what they see as high taxes, unbridled city-parish spending and little to show for it—other than high crime, low-performing schools and traffic. The sentiment has flourished in the more conservative southeast portion of the parish, fueling the St. George incorporation effort, where opposition to taxes rings loudest.
Nearly everyone agrees road upgrades are badly needed, yet at the same time an anti-tax crusade has been mounted, driven by controversial tax hikes in recent years such as ones for CATS and the Council on Aging, diminishing hope of getting any other measures passed.
Will repackaging the updated plan make a difference this time around? Read the full story.
Also check out Business Report’s related feature on how all of the recent traffic proposals in Baton Rouge will fit together.
Also: Will different messaging on second attempt help the Bridge Center tax proposal win voter approval.
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