BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge Parish Library Director Katrina Stokes says they are looking to bring a new tax proposition before the Metro Council in January.

"It will be a clean, simple proposition that states the millage will go directly to the library for the next ten years," she said.

Stokes says if they can get a new tax proposition on the June 2026 ballot and it passes, the library will be able to collect revenue for the fiscal year 2026.

"We have to decide on what millage rates we will request going forward on the proposition," Stokes said.

During Thursday night's East Baton Rouge Library Board of Control meeting, some expressed their decision to vote against the Thrive tax proposition, which would've allowed 52 million dollars of the library's funding collected through the millage to go towards the city-parish general fund.

"The reason why I voted no was because I will accept absolutely nothing less than the full millage, and you should keep every dollar that's in your bank account; nothing should go to a general slush fund, especially from an agency that is run so well," one resident said.

In the meantime, the library will operate as usual. Stokes says the library currently has a fund balance that covers one year of operating expenses to help keep them afloat, but, after that year, they would have to consider possibly making cuts.

"The last thing on our mind is cutting our staff; we will do everything in our power to ensure the staff remain where they are," Stokes said.

A meeting will be held next month to discuss what the millage rate on the proposition could look like.

"I'm confident that we're going to make that ballot in June and it is going to pass," Stokes said.

The Metro Council would have to approve the proposition by April 27th to ensure it will make it on the June 2026 ballot.