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 Pro-Tem Brandon Noel told WBRZ on Wednesday that there appears to have been a misunderstanding on what had to happen first with the council and Southern taking up the matters out of order. The city-parish is not authorized to collect the tax.

The finance department says it expects the tax to be approved in time to collect it this fall. No one could explain how the tax plan fell through the cracks. 

WBRZ checked for similar paperwork involving the economic development district surrounding LSU.

The Metro Council has scheduled a public hearing for later this month, but there's no proposed effective date listed for new taxes around that campus.

A new Southern University Economic Development District will have to wait before a new tax levy takes effect.