BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish Library has announced plans to secure future funding. It hopes to bring a tax renewal to the voters for the June 27 election.This plan follows their previous renewal plan, which failed as part of the Thrive EBR plan in November. The library board states tha t this time around, the proposal will be subject to its own independent vote."It will just be about the library, and it will be at a lower millage rate. We're asking for 9.5 mills, and that includes two rollbacks over the 10-year taxing period," EBR Assistant Library Director Mary Stein said.Stein says that the previous rate for property owners was 9.89 Mills."The reason we can do more with less is that we've completed those last big capital improvement plans and we had fresh numbers that took into account inflation or deflation in certain costs, but also the fact that the millage is returning a higher rate," Stein said.The renewal would be for 10 years, and if passed, funding would start in 2027."One mil delivers $6.2 million now. It didn't use to. That means that a 9.5 millage rate is expected to deliver a little over $59 million a year," Stein said.Stein says the library will introduce this tax plan at the next East Baton Rouge Metro Council meeting on Jan. 14. The public hearings are scheduled for Feb. 11.If approved by the EBR Metro Council, the Library says it plans to spend the remaining months educating voters as much as possible."So if your home is valued at $200,000, your property tax at 9.5 mills is $118.75 per year. That includes the homestead exemption," Stein said.WBRZ Political Analyst James Hartman says having the renewal be separate from Thrive may be beneficial."Historically, throughout this part of Louisiana, if not the whole state, when an agency takes more than one bite of the same apple in a short period of time, they're likely to fail. In this case, however, the situation is different; this is not part of a parish-wide effort being pushed by city hall," Hartman said.However, recent history shows renewals not being nearly as successful the second time around. Within the past year, seven tax-related proposals were rejected in East Baton Rouge Parish.Several library patrons say they support the library and its plan going forward."I think the library has done a great job managing their money for the last 10 years, and they need to be able to do it again, and not let the politicians spend their money," Cathy Gabel said.To learn more about the tax renewal, you can head to its website here.Permalink| Comments ...read more read less