District 8 City-Parish Councilman Keith Patin has been taking a beating from the Tea Party of Lafayette for having an open mind on the creation of two proposed economic development, or TIF, districts at Kaliste Saloom Road and Camellia Boulevard. Now Patin wants to hear what his constituents have to say by calling a town-hall style meeting.
The proposed economic development districts — also called a Tax Increment Financing district — are located on 34 acres of prime real estate at Kaliste Saloom Road and Camellia Boulevard, across the street from upscale River Ranch, in District 7, which is represented by Councilman Don Bertrand. River Ranch is a traditional neighborhood development that has successfully built up in the past dozen years without requesting such incentives, made possible by the Louisiana Legislature in 2002 when it amended decades-old incentive laws to allow for a wider range of economic development projects. The proposed TIF districts are to help fund development of a luxury hotel unlike any currently offered in the market. It is a component of developer Glenn Stewart's Parc Lafayette, a lifestyle center that will also offer office, shopping and restaurants.
The TIF proposals call for an additional 2 cent sales tax and 2 cent hotel occupancy tax at the hotel, and a 1 cent sales tax in the retail development that will surround the hotel. The base sales tax of 8 percent would continue to line the coffers of the state, local government and the Lafayette Parish School Board, and absolutely no tax dollars are on the hook if the development fails; the additional tax expires when the bonds are paid off. The revenue generated from the extra hotel and sales taxes would fund the hotel infrastructure and development only.
“I’m lucky I don’t have to vote today,” says Patin, who remains steadfast in his commitment to study every pro and con of the developer’s request before casting his vote, scheduled for March 15, despite mounting pressure and threats from the Tea Party of Lafayette. “It’s difficult to get all viewpoints across when it escalates and tempers flare,” says Patin, referencing at Feb. 10 meeting he had with the TPL.
Patin is meeting with his District 8 constituents Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Southside Regional Library to hear from them and to address their concerns about the project, which borders his district. District 7's Bertrand will attend the meeting as well.
Patin has invited developer Stewart to address the crowd and answer any questions, and the councilman is adamant the discourse will be civil.
Read more about the proposed TIF districts in tomorrow’s Independent Weekly.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
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MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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