When Mayor Oliver Ellis was elected two years ago, he pledged to work diligently to help South Monroe. So far, that hasn’t happened.
What’s needed to help South Monroe is spelled out in Southside Economic District’s 25-year plan. It amounts to the “big dream” for South Monroe.
It will take about $500 million to fix our problem. It begins with addressing crime and developing safe neighborhoods. These are prerequisites to attracting economic development.
$500 million is a considerable amount, but that’s what it will take, and probably more.
Unfortunately, the mayor is unwilling to go “whole hog” toward investing in South Monroe. He only wants to do a little “some something.”
This week he met with leaders of SEDD and selected eight of the 47 projects in South Monroe’s “Big Dream” 25-year plan and promised to pump $12 million into projects he liked. He specified that he was only interested in “infrastructure” (things you can’t see) projects.
The SEDD leaders were disappointed when the mayor told them that to get his $12 million deal; there are strings. SEDD can never ask Southside voters to pass a sales tax to get the rest of the money needed to finish its dream. He offered a take it or leave it deal.
He went further and presented them a proposal that said for the next 25 years, if the SEDD even passes a motion in its meetings or takes any step toward asking for a sales tax that the city would snatch back its $12 million commitment.
A sales tax for Southside would generate about $190 million over 25 years. The District hopes to get $300 million from Federal, state, and private sources by leveraging the $190 million with matches and equity.
The mayor won’t fund what we want and won’t let us pay for it ourselves.
Look at it. The mayor won’t fund efforts to get a supermarket for South Monroe, Post Office, a Convention center, a water park, police substations, or mental health facilities. Neither will he support plans for a Renwick Street Strip mall, Small business loans to Black and women businesses, massive crime reduction plans, neighborhood revitalization, business incubators, and many other initiatives.
By forcing SEDD to restrict its efforts to eight infrastructure projects, the mayor is willing to give the Southside a tiny “slice” of the cake but will take back its slice if SEDD asks the residents to tax themselves to get the whole cake.
People will pay for what they want.
In Ouachita Parish, there are over 80 special taxing districts in which residents have decided to tax themselves to get what they want.
For example, there are 45 road lighting districts, 19 sewer districts, seven water districts, four drainage districts, one industrial district, one mosquito abatement district, one West Monroe Airport District, one recreation district, one GB Cooley District, one Richwood Lighting District, one West side sales Tax for schools, one Southwest Ouachita Economic District, one Walnut Street Economic District and the Southside Economic Development District.
Each of these districts can tax themselves to get what they want. SEDD would be the only one of the 84 that will not be able to ask for tax if the mayor has its way. SEDD is the largest of all of the districts, and it is completely controlled by African-Americans. Hmmmmm.
The mayor drives an old vintage truck to look like a regular guy, but he lives comfortably on Forsythe Avenue in a safe neighborhood.
We have a right to safe neighborhoods, too.
If the mayor only wants to throw Southside a $12 million crumb, then the least he could do is allow Southside voters the right to fix our own problem, even if it means taxing ourselves to get it done.
Our three city council members should use their influence to give South Monroe the full $25 million agreement he initially promised without specifying his own picks. In addition, the deal he gives should not prohibit the residents of South Monroe from stepping up to the plate and paying for what we want with an additional sales tax if necessary.
Henry Carroll had an old saying, “We want what we want when we want it. If we can’t get what we want, when we want it, then we don’t want it.”
We want South Monroe’s problem’s addressed.
We want the right to pay for the whole cake, not just a tiny slice that will not give us what we want.
We should have the right to decide what we want, not Mayor Oliver Ellis.
