BATON ROUGE mdash; Mayor-President Sid Edwards introduced East Baton Rouge Parish's proposed $1.176 billion operating budget for 2027 during a special Metro Council meeting Thursday.Unlike the 2026 budget, which saw reductions of roughly $15 million, the 2027 plan increases spending by about $20 mi llion."We're not planning on any layoffs; now, what we will do is that some positions are frozen that we may not unfreeze. If spots come open, say naturally people retire and move on and get other jobs, we may not fill them," Edwards said.A nearly $64 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to address public safety is easing pressure on local agencies, though that federal funding remains separate from the parish's operating budget.Among the agencies benefiting is the Baton Rouge Police Department. Under the proposed budget, BRPD would see its allocation rise by roughly 8.5% over the previous year."Probably will be a bit higher because we have to fund the raises," Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas "T.J." Morse Jr. said.Morse said the DOJ grant, awarded through the Model Cities Initiative, will provide vital operational support."I think that's going to give us a little breathing room in our budget, especially looking at our overtime dollars, because we are so short. We're going to be able to spend a lot of that money on overtime for directed patrols in our target areas," Morse said.BRPD's funding comes from the parish's roughly $344 million General Fund, which supports core services including the police department, the Baton Rouge Fire Department, and the District Attorneyrsquo;s Office.District Attorney Hillar Moore III has repeatedly lobbied for higher allocations, requesting about $22 million for 2027mdash;a figure Moore said aligns EBR's budget with neighboring Orleans and Jefferson parishes.The proposed 2027 spending plan, however, earmarks just $8.3 million for the DArsquo;s office, a sum Moore described as woefully inadequate."With this money, we surely can't expand. Can't expand services. It will not impact any of the backlog of cases that we have. We're basically at a standstill. That impacts public safety, that impacts victims, impacts our services," Moore said.Moore, who filed a lawsuit against the city-parish earlier this year to secure more revenue, noted that discussions continue."As you know, we have a lawsuit that is pending; we had a hearing today. Hopefully we will find a way to resolve that," Moore said.Edwards said a portion of the federal DOJ grant will be directed toward Moorersquo;s office."Some of that money will indeed be used for our District Attorney and other public safety entities, so we will be able to use some of that to help Hillar and his gang out for sure," Edwards said.Edwards cautioned, however, that the grant will be distributed over three years and does not provide permanent, recurring revenue.Moore told WBRZ on Wednesday how he envisioned using the grant funds if sufficient money became available."We hope to form divisions in the office for homicide, gangs, domestic violence, and rape. Things of that nature that are specialized, narcotics, and fully staff them with not only attorneys, but investigators, analysts, and secretaries. Right now we don't have that capacity because we're spread so thin," Moore said.Moore noted the final federal grant was roughly half of what local officials originally sought."Had we received the amount of money that we had asked for in that model cities proposal, we would have been able to increase our employees by 77," Moore said.The East Baton Rouge Metro Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget on Dec. 8.Permalink| Comments ...read more read less