BATON ROUGE - Money could move around in East Baton Rouge. In an attempt to cut taxes for parish citizens, Mayor-President Sid Edwards has a proposed plan to take money currently allocated to the library system and give it to other city-parish programs.

The plan is facing backlash from those in Edwards' inner circle.

Darryl Hurst is in a unique position, serving on the library board of control, Metro Council, and on the transition team for Sid Edwards. Despite his service, Hurst says he’s not on board with the proposed plan.

"I think we're going about this the wrong way," Hurst said.

The mayor’s office says the library has extra money. In 2023, it ended the year with more than $116 million dollars, taking in about $62 million and spending more than $56 million. Edwards says it’s from years of over-taxation.

"The library is the most fiscally responsible agency almost in all of the city parish," Hurst said.

Edwards wants to drop a city-parish millage from 11.1 mills to 9.8. Mary Stein, the assistant director of the EBR Library has another idea, lowering the millage to 10.5.

At that rate, the owner of a $200,000 house with a homestead exemption would pay about $130 dollars a year. The millage rate the mayor proposes would be about $10 less.

The money would go towards drainage, storm, water, infrastructure, and to the Baton Rouge police.

Edwards also proposes raising the average pay from more than $40,000 to $58,000 starting pay.

Hurst says the previous administration gave the largest raise to BRPD, ”I believe they deserve it, but we still only had nine people graduate from the academy,” Hurst said.

“The problem is, we keep talking public safety, police don't fix crime,” Hurst said. “Taking somebody from poverty to disposable income does.”