Faimon Roberts: Mayor President Sid Edwards comes to East Baton Rouge libraries – nola.com

It took just over a month for the mayor of the parish of the new Eastern Baton Rouge to make his first bold move.

In a message at the end of Thursday, Edwards announced that he was planning to ask the parish voters to finance police salaries by taking money from the brilliant parish library system, one of the best in the state.

By paraphraseing here, but Edwards’ terrain is basically: “Our cops do too little and the parish library is loaded.”

Reflexively, it is easy to consider this as another Republican attempt to gut a library system because of some perceived danger that lurks in the books inside. Such moves came to the parishes of Lafayette, St. Tamani and Livingston.

That doesn’t seem. Or if it is, it is cleverly made.

It is difficult to argue that East Baton Rouge Parish’s library system does not turn away with money. This has been since voters approved a specialized tax of 11.1 miles for the system in the mid-1990s. This led to the large excess and the swelling fund balance, which, according to Edwards, is over $ 100 million.

Think about it. The library system has a $ 100 million reserve account. This is a huge government entity whose annual budget is only about $ 61 million. Library leaders have challenged that they also told reporter Patrick Sloan-Terner that by the end of this year, the account would be $ 92 million. And yet, many.

Edwards is not the first city leader to think of a way to deal with the library’s money. Others whisper that they have been doing the same in the hallways of St. Louis Saint for years.

What, they killed these whispers, however, are voters. As voters approved the 10-year tax in 1995, it was approved twice twice, each time with at least 58% support for voters.

Library officials could – and they will probably claim that they have such a great balance on the fund because of good management. They have not wasted dollars of taxpayers, they will say. They were conservative and prudent.

This opinion has merit. Unlike most public agencies, East Baton Rouge’s library system does not go into debt to build new projects, even in the Palace Main Library of Goodwood. They practice payment by saving interest costs along the way. In other words, they save to afford the things they want.

Ironically, this good governance made their crates a very appetizing view for urban leaders tied to money. And with the coming budget crisis due to St. George’s financing, the temptation that will come after these funds is understandably high.

If he is successful in this impetus, Edwards said some of the money would go for infrastructure and every county of the Council. But the largest part of the plan would raise the payment of Baton Rouge police from “Among the lowest paid in the region to the highest paid municipal forces in Louisiana.”

This is a painful thought. The average salary of a BRPD employee is just under $ 41,000, according to Edwards. Edwards’ proposal will take it to $ 58,000. And given the fact that the violent crime remains a thorny problem for the capital, the payment of the police seems more like a logical step.

Will the parish voters go? That remains to be seen. Why is someone in Zahari or Central – or St. George on this – would like to pay taxes to subsidize police in a city where they do not live? Many of these people have spent their lives from Baton Rouge, physically and legislatively.

Perhaps the argument is that the worse crime in Baton Rouge is a tide that would raise everyone’s boats to take a badly used cliché?

What may be the most disturbing here is the approach to everyone or nothing that Edwards has chosen. It is quite honest to say that maybe the library should live with a tax closer to its needs and to redirect some of its tax to public safety.

But Edwards’ proposal redirects the whole thing, although he plans to reduce the mill from his current maximum 11.1 miles to 9.8.

If the voters go with the plan, Edwards says he plans to work to “ensure that we will maintain the best library system with public funding in the country.”

How you would do this is not clear. Library leaders will need to be stuffed on the council every year and fight for programs, salaries, maintenance and facilities. This would put them in the same boat as other public services as fire, public works, etc. However, they would not be in the same position as the East Baton Rouge park system, Brec, which was renewed last year by its voter taxes and thus has its own special funding flow.

Nevertheless, Edwards’ move shows the political note of a cunning veteran. He is facing a political dilemma: people want more favorable streets, but they hate new taxes.

So, he sets the choice of voters: “Better pay for cops, also reduce the tax. Earn!” He clearly believes that voters facing libraries and cops will choose the latter.

The announcement announcing Edwards’s plan was exactly eight paragraphs if you count the one who introduced a quote. This is valuable to continue.

Edwards plans to make his proposal to the Council in March and if he was successful there before the voters in October, when the library tax will appear for renewal. There is a lot to unpack between now and then.