A new proposal could help the East Baton Rouge Parish Library regain some funding it lost after the failure of Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ Thrive EBR plan in November.
The library is seeking a 9.5 millage rate. A millage is a property tax where 1 mill equals about $1 for every thousand dollars in value. The new rate is about .4 less than what the library currently collects, but more than what it would have been subjected to under Thrive’s cutbacks.
The proposal will have to be approved by both the East Baton Rouge Metro Council and by voters. Mary Stein, the assistant library director, said that the library will be able to operate and grow with this millage rate, receiving an estimated $59 million.
“We knew we could accomplish everything we needed to accomplish at the 9.5 millage. So that is the saving to the voters,” Stein said.
Historically, the library has asked voters for 11.1 mills when going for a renewal. Due to rollbacks, it’s been operating at 9.89 mills. In 2025, the library would’ve asked for 10.5 mills, but other parish officials had a different proposal.
The Thrive EBR plan would’ve taken a part of the library and the two other organizations' millages to help the city stay afloat amid a budget deficit. That would’ve taken the library down to 8.3 mills.
Voters rejected the proposal, taking the library’s mileage with it. Library supporters said they voted against the plan because they didn’t want the library to lose any funding.
The library is a big deal in Baton Rouge. A report from the State Library of Louisiana shows that it has some of the highest attendance and number of events in the state.
The new proposal would allow the library to bring back previous plans that it had to downsize to make the Thrive plan work.
“To make the 8.3 (from Thrive) work, we made trims to the capital improvement plan,” Stein said. “So I can restore the capital improvement plan that we wanted to do with this 9.5.”
The library will receive funding from 2025 this year, since millage collection lags a year. But as of now, it won’t receive anything in 2027.
So they’re on their own currently, but they will receive about $53 million from 2025, and they already have about $60 million in their fund balance.
Stein said the library plans to get the proposal in front of the Metro Council next month, on February 11. If the council passes it, voters will take up the matter on June 27. If the timeline holds, the library won’t lose a year of funding.
