BATON ROUGE — The BREC parks system is asking voters for a tax renewal on this year's ballot.

Sixty-five percent of BREC's operating budget comes from the recurring millage that is being voted on starting Friday during early voting.

If the millages don't pass, some things will need to change, BREC officials said.

"I think we'll have a conversation with the community about what they want to see. Do they want a lower millage? Do they not want a park system at all?" Superintendent Corey Wilson said.

While some parks benefit from private partnerships or grants, Wilson says more than 80% of funding for the parks division comes from taxes.

With over 175 parks, some have fallen by the wayside.

A shot-up, abandoned truck has sat at Geronimo Street Park for years. At Tuscarora Street Park there is nothing but an overgrown lot. 

The disarray of some of the parks in the northern part of the parish brings up the question: How well is money being spent?

"We will concede the fact that there are a lot of parks to take care of which makes it a challenge to keep everything at the level we'd like to keep it," Wilson said. "Focusing on areas that we haven't historically spent money in is also a big focus when we talk about equity and making sure that everybody has nice stuff."

It's hard to get a clear answer on the state of it's money managment, since BREC is behind on it's audits.
The system just filed their 2021 report, which revealed nearly $70,000 was stolen by former employees.
Wilson says they are in the process of getting the 2022 and 2023 reports filed.
they also just hired a new CFO in June.

Recently at Flanacher Road Park in Zachary, the 14-year-old rec center is closed due to termite damage and HVAC repairs.

"A lot of our buildings are old and outdated and anytime you go to change something, there's something else there and you have to bring everything up to code," Wilson said.

BREC has budgeted $400,000 to fix the damages.