For the second time in as many years, Baton Rouge voters have rejected Mayor Kip Holden’s $900 billion Bond Proposal. On Saturday’s election, 64 percent of voters voted down the proposal. Compared to the 51% who defeated this proposal on last year’s election, the popularity of this proposal is losing ground, and fast (also notable was the turnout’s effect on the results: last year, this proposal was on the ballot along with the national election of President and Congress. This year, it was on the ballot with only small local races).
The proposal would have raised the sales tax in Baton Rouge to 9.5%, up from 9%, as well as raising property taxes for the next thirty years. Although Mayor Holden was promoting the infrastructure and safety aspect of the proposal, more money would have gone to develop a government-funded theme park, Audubon ALIVE!, run by the Audubon Institute (famous for it’s Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans), than to any other project. I know that these city leaders may not notice it looking at our national government, but the job of government is never to fund or run a private organization or attraction.
I think Baton Rouge has sent a clear message that we’re not interested in having the city own the Alive project,”
- Dwight Hudson, spokesman, Baton Rouge Tea Party
The failure of the tax proposal also cements the influence of the liberty-movement in America, with organizations like the Baton Rouge Tea Party (which is one of the few major Tea Party organizations that is run by liberty-lovers and not Republican neoconservatives) campaigning against this proposal.
On one last note, I’d like to highlight the cowardness of Mayor Kip Holden, who I’ve supported in the 2008 election but do no longer. He brings up this proposal after his elections are over, only to have them soundly defeated twice. And really, using TV ads with a bunch of babies crawling around saying “think about their future”? Get over yourself, Mayor.
(BTW, Baton Rouge Police, if more of your police were patrolling high crime streets and less worried about campaigners on the side of the road handing out information on a public sidewalk and road, maybe you wouldn’t need as much extra funding. But I understand: that would require doing your job.)
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