Thrive EBR, the tax rededication plan meant to help pull East Baton Rouge out of a $21 million deficit, failed Saturday. The plan, which was spread across three ballot initiatives affecting the East Baton Rouge Public Library, the East Baton Rouge Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control and the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging, failed by a close margin all around.
- Prop 1 — East Baton Rouge Public Library: 53% no, 47% yes
- Prop 2 — Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control: 52% no, 48% yes
- Prop 3 — East Baton Rouge Council on Aging: 51% no, 49% yes
The result is a major blow to plans made by Mayor-President Sid Edwards and the East Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council, which threw their full weight behind the proposal.
Currently, the proposed budget for 2026 features a nearly across-the-board 11% cut to departments and 33% cut to staff. The cuts exclude the police and fire departments as the mayor prioritizes public safety.
Edwards said employee cuts are unavoidable. Mason Batts, the executive director at the mayor-president’s office, said that notices would be going out to employees affected by the cuts on Monday.
“No matter how you move the pieces on the chess board, I might go from 230 to 222 (positions cut) because the money’s that tight,” Edwards said.
The denial by voters is also a major blow to the East Baton Rouge Public Library, which now has no funding source, as its millage was on the ballot along with the rededication from Thrive.
It will receive funds from 2025, since disbursements lag by a year, and has a fund balance that will allow it to continue to operate — about $100 million. But drastic budget cuts are needed.
” We will cut more from the book budget. We will certainly cut more from programming and advertising,” Mary Stein, the Assistant Library Director, said.
The library has already made cuts to its budget, has instituted a hiring freeze on positions, cut some of its databases and adjusted its capital improvement plans
And while Stein said the last thing they want to do is cut hours, they might have to.
To get funding back, the library will need to go back on the ballot for a new tax, which will require the Metro Council’s approval. Stein said, if the library can make it to the ballot in May, it will miss out on funding from 2026 but will be able to get it for 2027. If the library can’t get to the ballot until November, it will miss out on another year.
Councilman Aaron Moak expects the library’s new tax will go before voters in May. As for how much they will ask for, Moak said he wants the library to come up with a number that reasonably fills their needs, because the number on the ballot for Thrive was just how much they could continue services with.
“They didn’t plan on any expansion or any new services with that. So they have to look at those things and see what they need to put in for that,” Moak said.
Mayor-President Edwards said his current plan is not to have the library go back on the ballot with the other agencies.
“I think we shot our shot,” Edwards said. “As the mayor-president, I always have the right to change my mind, but my deal is to support those three entities in their endeavors.”
The EBRCOA and mosquito abatement still have a year to return to the ballot before they lose funding.
