Metro Council Surprises Holden by Killing Tax 9-3

BATON ROUGE — The Kip Holden administration was taken by surprise at Wednesday afternoon’s Metro Council meeting in Baton Rouge. Mayor-President Holden introduced his tax plan for the fall election ballot, which would have raised sales taxes in Central by 3/4 cents, up to 10.25 percent on each transition — a highly controversial proposal in Central.

The introduction of an ordinance is a routine event and is not debatable. It normally lays over until the next regular Metro Council meeting. But, in a surprise move, Metro Councilman Scott Wilson (R-Central) proposed deleting the item from the files of the Council.

The mayor-president was stun-ned when the Council approved Wilson’s motion 9-3. Only Metro Council members Joel Boé, Tara Wicker, and Denise Marcelle voted to keep the tax alive.

This action should effectively kill the tax for this year.

It was a major victory for Wilson, who has opposed each of Holden’s three plans to enact massive sales and property tax increases.

Wilson worked quietly behind the scenes to line up support for his motion.  Holden was clearly unprepared for what happened.

“These are tough times.  People have their backs against the wall,” Wilson said.  “It’s not a good time to ask people to pay more taxes.  The administration wanted to ram it through, but that’s not the way to do things.”

The current sales tax rate in East Baton Rouge Parish is 9 percent, but in Central and Baker, the rate is 9.5 percent, because the people there voted for additional taxes for their school systems.

Mayor-President Holden offered a combination of sales and property taxes on two previous occasions.  Both were heavily defeated by the voters.

Holden had hoped to put this third proposal on the ballot this fall.  It would have provided a combination of 3/4 cents in additional sales taxes and 3 mills in additional property taxes, in order to raise $748 million in taxes for various public works projects.

The additional 3/4 cent sales tax would have put the sales tax at 10.25 percent in Central and Baker — an amount many citizens in the two communities thought was unacceptable.

Wilson said, “Our schools in Central are a driving force, and these high sales taxes would be devastating to our local economy.”  He said he thought people might avoid shopping in Central, and that the Central Community School System and the City of Central would suffer as a result.

Normally, when a proposed ordinance is introduced, it is referred to a committee but the Council has the right to take it up and act on it immediately.  When Wilson moved to delete the matter from the files of the Council, Holden watched helplessly.  The Council held an immediate vote without debate.

Voting to kill the tax plan were Mayor Pro-Tem Mike Walker, Ulysses Addison, Allison Cascio, Ronnie Edwards, Chandler Loupe, Trae Welch, and Scott Wilson.  As mentioned earlier, Boé, Marcelle, and Wicker voted to keep it alive.

Holden faces severe time limitations in any attempt to resurrect the tax plan.  He would have to call a special meeting of the Council and get seven votes to move forward in order to get the proposal on the ballot in accordance with the requirements of state law for this fall’s ballot.

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News