The East Baton Rouge Metro Council gave its final approval to the 2026 parish budget Tuesday evening.
The final product is riddled with cuts and doesn’t look much different from what Mayor-President Sid Edwards laid out in his initial proposal because of the failure of his Thrive BR plan at the polls in November.
There is one major difference — every member of the East Baton Rouge Metro Council gave a portion of the money allocated to their district to various departments that received cuts.
The members were able to give this money as each district received $105,000 apiece from an amended contract between the parish and the energy company Entergy.
Councilwoman Laurie Adams presented the amendment that reallocated this money. She said council members were trying to plug holes.
“These are small amounts (of money), they don’t begin to make up for the cuts that we made, but they’re something,” Adams said. “And in extraordinary times, which these are, every little bit matters.”
Despite the amendment, nearly every department still received about an 11% cut, and a 33% reduction in staff was also made. The staff reduction includes some parish positions that were already vacant.
Mason Batts, executive director for the mayor-president’s office, said about 200 people will lose their jobs from the budget cut, and some already have. Edwards said that those employees can expect to be let go between now and the middle of January.
Edwards is going to try to get his outgoing employees in front of potential employers, with plans to organize a career fair in motion.
“We’ve got some really great people in city-parish man, some really great workers,” Edwards said.
In the weeks leading up to the meeting, the heads of parish offices lined up to speak before the council at budget hearings. Most of them pleaded for money, which few received. They shared that the cuts would severely damage their departments.
Both the East Baton Rouge Fire Department and the East Baton Rouge Police Department were spared from cuts because of Edwards' commitment to public safety, something he made clear when he first released the budget.
Batts said the departments also avoided the cut because it would cost the city more in overtime.
“ (The police and fire departments) both have to keep a certain amount of manpower on the streets and on patrol at a time to both keep their ratings and stay within the legal limits,” Batts said.
Not every department that has its hands in public safety was spared. Departments like the 19th Judicial District Court, the Baton Rouge Constable’s Office and the Baton Rouge Public Defender’s Office took a hit. Though some of the blow was somewhat offset by the reallocations from council members.
The mayor-president took some heat from these offices, which said that they are as much a part of public safety as the police or fire department.
“It's not fair, not just to my office, but to my officers who put on a uniform every day,” Terrica Williams, the East Baton Rouge Constable, said. “They put on a badge of honor, and they protect and serve our city.”
Batts said the mayor-president’s office is working to get funding for offices, especially those mandated by the constitution, from other sources, like state opioid settlement money, which is not included in this budget.
That may not be enough for one department, however. The District Attorney’s office has been raising alarms that, in its view, the parish was not meeting its legal responsibility to reasonably fund them.
To this end, the DA’s office may sue the parish to get the money they say they need, though the DA’s not particularly happy about it.
“It’s not fun or good for someone to bite the hand that feeds them,” Hilliar Moore, East Baton Rouge District Attorney, said.
Though the District Attorney did receive money from council members, Edwards said the amount is likely not enough to prevent this. Edwards said there’s no hard feelings if it happens, he considers this a friendly lawsuit.
The city’s current budget woes and subsequent cuts stem from the breakaway of the City of St. George. After voters approved the new city and the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in its favor, the city joined the line of breakaways and started receiving its sales tax.
Without that tax, Mayor-President Edwards had to tangle with a $15 million gap in this year’s budget. This follows former Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s administration making significant cuts to this year's budget before she left office to brace for the impact.
Edwards came with grim tidings when reflecting on next year’s budget.
“The 2027 budget won't be as kind as this budget was,” Edwards said.
There are some loose ends from this budget. The COVID era funds from the American Rescue Plan Act were integral to keeping the parish afloat. All that’s left of those is the interest they earned.
That interest was used to fund non-parish departments, which includes beloved programs like Live After Five and necessary functions like the office of the public defender. These funds are gone after this year.
Edwards said Stormwater and Drainage needs a dedicated source of funds, and some departments warned that it is inevitable that they would go over budget.
To address this, Edwards and Adams both said that they will continue to look for funds to make up for the deficit.
