East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor Sid Edwards said on Tuesday that if his plan to rededicate parish library system funds to other areas is unsuccessful, the city-parish could cut around 600 jobs and reduce services.
“Dead people can’t read books,” Edward said in a news conference Tuesday, referencing his plan to dedicate additional funding to police to address crime. “We have a problem in Baton Rouge.”
Edwards later clarified that the 600-job estimate was a rough projection.
|
|
|
“If this doesn’t happen, we’re cutting services,” he says. “This is a crucial (moment) in the history of Baton Rouge.”
The city-parish employs roughly 4,500 people―a number Chief Administrative Officer Charlie Davis says is an inappropriately large workforce.
Earlier this month, Edwards announced a plan to move the library’s independently funded budget derived from its own property tax into the parish general fund. The move is intended to redirect some library funds to provide significant pay raises for police officers and address other priorities.
As part of the plan, called Revive EBR, Edwards proposed reallocating city-parish library funds to pay for drainage and road improvements, mental health services and other initiatives. The plan would reduce the library’s annual budget from $65 million to $38 million. Edwards and his spokesperson, Falon Brown, compared the library system’s $65 million budget to the $43 million budget for the Dallas library system and the $38 million budget in Nashville.
“I like books, but I like people more,” Edwards says. “Not one service is going to be cut from this library system. The services are going to remain the same.”
Even with the proposed $38 million budget, East Baton Rouge Parish’s library system would still receive $17 million more than the next-largest library system in the state—New Orleans.
The library system’s anticipated operating budget for the year is approximately $65.1 million. The system expects to have a fund balance of $92.7 million by year’s end, which includes the full budget, with the remaining funds allocated for capital improvements.
The Revive EBR plan is structured into one-time allocations and recurring revenue.
The proposal includes a one-time allocation of $75.4 million, contributing to a total of $104 million in one-time funds aimed at enhancing critical services.
The recurring revenue for debt repayment, combined with funding from the millage rate, totals $68.6 million to support essential services for the community.
Key allocations from the one-time funds include:
• Public safety ($9.5 million): At least $1 million each for community policing, youth violence prevention, a gang task force, the Gardere Initiative, repurposing the “Brave Cave” facility, and additional support for the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices.
• Education ($1.5 to $2.5 million): Funding for Head Start transition and pay increases for its employees.
• Economic development ($11.5 million): Includes $7 million to $7.5 million for the River Center redevelopment, at least $2 million to address food deserts and another $1 million for a blight reduction campaign.
The plan also designates $21 million in recurring revenue for parishwide priorities, including mental health and homelessness services, drainage, road maintenance and beautification and public safety. The public safety investment would total approximately $10 million, including police pay raises and expanded community policing efforts.
East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board Vice President Donald Luther noted that the library plans to reduce its millage from 11.1 mills to 10.5 mills. The system’s 10-year dedicated property tax expires at the end of this year.
|
|
|
“We’d like to sit with your money people because those numbers don’t add up to our numbers,” Luther says. “There’s a real dilemma in the missing numbers that you all are coming up with. Two plans can’t go on the same ballot. If yours doesn’t work, it’s a potential problem that could devastate our library system.”
The Metro Council must approve the plan before it can be placed on the October ballot for a public vote.
This story was originally published by Daily Report on Feb. 25. To keep up with Baton Rouge business news, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.