BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden’s administration has unveiled details of a $335 million tax proposal to pay for public safety and capital improvements.
The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/17lBrpe) this marks Holden’s fourth attempt at persuading voters to approve higher taxes to pay for expensive and sweeping infrastructure improvements for the parish. Among those are a $204 million new parish jail, a $16 million mental health facility, a $50 million juvenile services facility and more.
The plan, if approved by the Metro Council next week and then by parish voters on May 2, will be paid for in part with a quarter-penny sales tax increase. The sales tax increase would start in July and span 25 years, but would only cover the cost of construction.