BATON ROUGE— The City-Parish's Finance Department sent out a notice stating it couldn't begin collecting special sales taxes benefiting economic development projects near Southern University.

WBRZ learned on Wednesday that the tax is unlikely to take effect until October due to oversight by the Metro Council.

The council was supposed to have approved the tax by now. However, the Metro Council missed its deadline. It scheduled a public hearing on the tax three weeks after the tax was supposed to have taken effect.

In 2023, state lawmakers established economic development districts for the areas around LSU and Southern.

The Southern EDD imposed a special one-cent sales tax at businesses around Southern's campus, along with a one-cent occupancy tax at hotels and motels.

Mayor-President P

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