Bills paid, no bold moves

The latest audit 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 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 to address the problem.
• More than 6,000 parcels in the parish sit tax adjudicated, yet the general fund booked just $112,420 from adjudicated property in 2025.
• Build Baton Rouge’s land bank has first right of refusal on some delinquent-tax parcels—exactly the kind of property a rehab 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, is under study.
• There are several sports tourism projects 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.