The citizens of the City of Baton Rouge-Parish of East Baton Rouge have voiced their concern that traffic congestion, safety and road maintenance is a big problem. Mayor-President Kip Holden and his administration recognized this as the number one issue for Baton Rouge’s future. The congestion experienced in the city was heightened by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the fall of 2005.

The problem is simple: the existing urban and rural roadway infrastructure is under capacity to adequately and safely carry the number of vehicles moving daily to/from and within the city and parish.

The City-Parish went before the citizens with a proposition to extend the One-Half Cent Sales and Use Tax for Street and Road Improvements through the year 2030. 70% of the tax collected is appropriated to street and road improvements. Based on the financial strength of the City-Parish, approximately 50% of the future tax revenues will be bonded through the issuance of Sales Tax Revenue Bonds in the early years of the program. The bond proceeds with allow the City-Parish to fund more projects in present day dollars. However, some projects will be constructed in later years of the program under the “pay-as-you-go” format.

The City-Parish will engage the expertise of the private sector by contracting for Program Management Services to facilitate an accelerated program schedule to construct as many projects in as short of time as possible. The private sector brings the manpower and resources necessary for implementation of accurate program budgets, forecasts, and schedules.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2006 CSRS 

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