BATON ROUGE - During Monday night's budget hearing, several of the East Baton Rouge Public Works department heads said residents may see a significant impact on response times if the proposed 2026 budget were to pass.

"We're going to either have to find a new revenue source that's going to help me provide contractual services to do what we need to do, or they're going to have to look at a new way to fund some positions, but also up the salary itself," Fred Raiford, Director of Transportation and Drainage, said.

Raiford says if the proposed 2026 budget passes, 11 positions will be frozen, and 40 positions that were previously frozen will be eliminated. He says budget cuts could impact services like sign production, pavement marking, and traffic signal response.

"We may have to see about homeowners or people in that area to pay for the signs and have somebody make them, and then we may look at doing the installation."

While many of the department heads say St. George has taken over some of the responsibilities in their departments, Raiford says they are still deciding which services the city-parish will continue to provide.

"We provided them a contract with the services we would provide. We also added some additional services, school flashers, which are very important during school time. St. George has chosen to be responsible for those school flashers," he said.

A proposed $1.1 million cut to the Department of Development could have a significant impact on blight abatement - a key initiative Mayor-President Sid Edwards ran on during his campaign.

Director Rachael Lambert says they will not have any general funds to address blight, with more than half the budget cuts coming from contracts.

"We spent close to probably $2.2 million on contracting blight abatement this year, and when we condemn 200 to 300 houses a year, each of those costing $10,000 approximately on average, that can add up to a pretty significant amount," Lambert said.

Other departments during the meeting say the budget cuts will not have major impacts on staffing, but they may have to prioritize projects a little more, saying those at the bottom of the list may take a little longer to get done.