The Mayor of Baton Rouge, Sid Edwards, set up a new proposal as part of his “Thrive! Baton Rouge” Project, to cut the East Baton Rouge Parish Libraries fund from 11.1% millige to 9.5%

“We want to put the money in the general fund, where we have a lot of holes in the budget,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of needs. I am a library believer and supporter, 100% but I have a whole parish to take of and look at.”

This is the largest funding cut to the libraries since the 1980’s. Executive Library Director, Katrina Stokes, has voiced her doubts and worries about the new proposal.

“It’s a simple fact, you cannot live on nothing until you get your paycheck,” Stokes said.

“It’s like starting work, but you don’t get that paycheck until the end of the month. Well, how are you going to make it work until then? So that is why we get our paycheck, for all intents and purposes, at the beginning of the year, and then we operate off that amount until the end of the year.”

Operation hours have become one of the largest reasons for needing their full funding of $68 million. Trying to stay open on weekends and evenings is not very common for most libraries. So, they need the additional funding.

“Our library serves the entire parish,” Stokes said. “That’s a lot of people, and it’s also a whole lot of service hours. We want to be open when people get off work.”

“We want to be open on the weekends when people are more likely to have the time and come visit the library.”

The libraries have been visited by over 10 million people in 2024, but there are more concerning issues that the Mayor wants to focus on. Such as drainage, infrastructure and economic development.