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# Bills paid, no bold moves
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/bills-paid-no-bold-moves/
- Published: 2026-10-20T02:24:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-20T02:24:50.000Z
- Description: The city-parish’s audit shows it can cover what it owes, but new revenue doesn’t have to mean new taxes.
- Author: JR Ball

The latest [audit](https://app.lla.state.la.us/publicreports.nsf/0/1ce2dec8e9de8f7886258e89005013ab/$file/0000bea3.pdf?openelement&.7773098&ref=redeyebr.com) of the East Baton Rouge city-parish government reinforced what we already knew: There’s enough money to pay existing bills—assuming costs don’t escalate too much—even with the St. George sales tax hit. What it can’t do is embark on a new priority or do anything especially bold without some combination of expense cutting and new revenue generation.

**Why it matters:** Financing any new ideas or priorities is a long shot given the reality of 1) EBR’s unique form of consolidated government—one brimming with [independent taxing agencies](https://www.redeyebr.com/14-cents/) and dedicated taxes and fees—2) the sales tax impact of the St. George incorporation and 3) a tax base growing slower than expenses.

**Accounting basics:** The audit is clean and net position—what the city-parish owns minus what it owes—is up $213.2 million, but paper isn’t spendable cash.

- Auditors gave the 2025 books an unmodified opinion, the cleanest kind.
- Net position rose to $940.8 million, helped by opioid settlement money, capital grants and interest earnings rather than a growing, tax-generating economy.
- Retiree health care and pension liabilities of $1.09 billion and $774.7 million push governmental activities to a $1.25 billion unrestricted deficit.

**The squeeze:** The budget’s pain point is a general fund that’s not very “general”—most of the money is allocated, leaving little discretionary funding.

- 62 cents of every general fund dollar goes to public safety, the DA and the courts—and the entire conservation and development category, home to economic development and neighborhood revitalization, gets about a penny.
- The general fund covered the St. George loss in 2025 with a planned $7.6 million deficit out of reserves, and 2026 is the first full year without that revenue.
- Free cash is thin at $19.2 million unassigned, roughly three weeks of general fund spending.

**Available options:** There’s nothing magical about it; to fund anything significant and new, the city-parish can cut expenses, generate new revenue or borrow against future tax collections.

- Further cost-cutting, outside of efficiency moves, would be a challenge. The 2026 budget trims the general fund by about $15.5 million and eliminates or leaves roughly 420 positions unfilled, with police, fire and EMS spared.
- Bonding remains an option but a pretty expensive one at the moment, given what’s happening with interest rates.
- Which brings us to new revenue...

**Money on the table:** Additional dollars don’t necessarily mean new taxes. Some of the cheapest new revenue is sitting there waiting for the city-parish to claim it.

- Collecting revenue from downtown surface-street parking has been spotty at best, and a stretched police force isn’t writing tickets. That’s money not being collected. The city-parish has hired a [new company](https://www.redeyebr.com/baton-rouge-downtown-parking-metropolis/) to address the problem.
- More than 6,000 parcels in the parish sit [tax adjudicated](https://www.buildbatonrouge.org/blog-posts/tackling-blight?ref=redeyebr.com), yet the general fund booked just $112,420 from adjudicated property in 2025.
- Build Baton Rouge’s [land bank](https://www.buildbatonrouge.org/land-bank-properties?ref=redeyebr.com) has first right of refusal on some delinquent-tax parcels—exactly the kind of property a [rehab](https://www.redeyebr.com/erasing-blight-starts-with-land/) could put back on the tax rolls.

**Economic bets:** The most effective way to generate new revenue is through economic growth. There are a number of projects on the drawing board, and even though most come with tax carve-outs, the business those deals create will still generate new dollars.

- Turning the River Center into a convention destination, with a [companion hotel](https://www.redeyebr.com/late-check-in/), is under study.
- There are several [sports tourism projects](https://www.redeyebr.com/sports-incorporated/) under consideration, including the Sports Illustrated resort, an expansion of the Elite facility and a reimagining of BREC’s Memorial Stadium complex. Proposed sports facilities in St. George would also generate some tax dollars for the city-parish.
- The LSU Arena and adjacent entertainment district remain on the table and are still expected to move forward, though details on timing and financing are unclear.
- Redevelopment along the Nicholson Gateway is expected to generate new housing and retail options over the next decade-plus.
- Plan Baton Rouge III, should it get off the ground, leans heavily on private investment that will boost tax collections.

**The bottom line:** Most of these projects have been touted as boosting economic development and quality of life, but given the city-parish budget realities, they could be key to preventing further budget cuts or an ask for new taxes.