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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
S at u r d ay, N ov e m b e r 15, 2025
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E LEC T ION 2025
Voters to decide on Thrive tax rededication
RPCC plans to open training center
Goal is to supply workers to area plants BY CHRISTOPHER CARTWRIGHT Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
East Baton Rouge Parish will vote Saturday on three items that are part of Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ plan to fix the parish’s budget woes.
Measures are split into 3 propositions on ballot
BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER
ä What’s on the ballot. PAGE 4A
a portion of the library system’s funding to the Baton Rouge Police Department has evolved into “Thrive,” which East Baton Rouge Parish residents deficit. Edwards wants to take some of Edwards says is necessary to put the will see three separate items on the bal- the money currently dedicated to librar- parish on the right fiscal footing. The word “Thrive” does not appear lot when they walk into the voting booth ies, mosquito and rodent control and the on Saturday, but it’s all part of Mayor- Council on Aging and reroute it to the on voters’ ballots. Instead, the 10-year President Sid Edwards’ plan to fix the parish general fund, giving him more measure is split up as propositions 1, 2 and 3. parish’s budget woes — and it’s one of flexibility to fix the problem. his first major political tests. The vote has been in the works for ä See ELECTION, page 4A The city is facing a structural budget months. What began as an effort to shift Staff writer
A planned River Parishes Community College training center in Donaldsonville is moving closer to construction with a roughly $450,000 purchase of land for the new facility. Located along La. 945, the new campus aims to train the future workforce for proposed industrial projects in the region, including a planned $5.8 billion Hyundai steel mill. Louisiana Community and Technical College System paid around $454,000 last week for the 20-acre site, according to documents filed with the Ascension Parish Clerk of Court. It is estimated to open in late 2027, Chancellor Quintin Taylor said Monday. “We’re taking every single community on the west bank and the east bank into consideration,” he said, saying the center hopes to attract students from Ascension, Assumption, St. James, St. John the Baptist and Iberville parishes. “Our hope is that they will flood this facility so that they get the training needed to go to work,” Taylor added. “ … Our goal in this is that we train local, we hire local, and that way we’re able to change the local communities by investing in them and their education.” Taylor said the center’s total cost
ä See RPCC, page 5A
Gayle Benson backs Saints GM Loomis Owner urges fans to be patient as team rebuilds
BY JEFF DUNCAN Staff writer
New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson issued her strongest public endorsement yet of general manager Mickey Loomis, calling demands for her to fire the football team’s longtime executive “ridiculous.” During an exclusive interview with The Times-Picayune on Thursday, Benson strongly backed the Saints’ embattled
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general manager, saying she holds him in “high esteem” and is “pleased” with his work. “It may not be what the fans want to hear, but as far as firing Mickey Loomis, that’s ridiculous,” Benson said. “(He) does a great job.” Loomis has become a lightning rod of fan criticism in the wake of the team’s slow start to the 2025 season. The team’s 1-8 start was the franchise’s worst since 1980. At 2-8, the Saints are tied with the New York Giants for the worst record in the NFC. The Saints, meanwhile, have lost 21 of their last 26 games, dating to last season,
and are on track to miss the playoffs for a fifth consecutive year. It’s the club’s longest postseason drought since the early 2000s. “You don’t think Mickey Loomis is losing sleep at night over all of this? He is,” Benson said. “It’s hard. It’s not an easy job. It’s not like he’s sitting on his butt, not worrying about things.” In his 24th season as the club’s top football executive, Loomis, 68, is the longest tenured general manager in the NFL. His tenure has included the most successful run in franchise history, including seven
STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore, from left, poses with owner Gayle Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis on Feb. 13 at the Saints ä See SAINTS, page 4A practice facility in Metairie.
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