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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
T h u r s d ay, F e b r u a ry 13, 2025
EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH
Council fails to pass library tax renewal
Large crowd turns out in support of library system
$2.00X
House releases budget
Johnson and Scalise pitch ‘one beautiful bill’ to advance President Trump’s agenda BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Baton Rouge Police Chief Thomas Morse Jr. announces the City Hall meeting room has exceeded capacity and some standing visitors must leave to an overflow room during the Metro Council meeting on Wednesday. BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
The fate of future funding for East Baton Rouge Parish’s library system remains an unknown, after the Metro Council failed to pass a millage renewal Wednesday. The possibility of the council approving the tax for voters’ ballots in October remains, though the path might not be abundantly clear, because, while the millage failed to pass, it could be approved in the future. “We need to figure out our next steps,” said Library Director Katrina Stokes. “We want to talk to the council members to try to reach a workable solution. In order to get our resolution to ask for our dedicated millage tax, it will still go to the library; it will not go into the general fund.” Last week, Mayor-President Sid Edwards pitched a plan to use funds
WASHINGTON — After weeks of negotiations between the warring factions of Republicans in Congress, the House’s two leaders — both from Louisiana — released Wednesday a federal budget that cuts taxes by $4.5 trillion and axes $1.5 trillion in spending. The 45-page budget resolution increases by $4 trillion the $36.1 trillion amount the government can borrow, and adds language that will allow energy companies to increase oil and gas production and close the border — all issues President Donald Trump campaigned on. The name of House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, is on the spending blueprint, but it is the product of hours of joint negotiations in which Johnson, from the northwest Louisiana town of Benton, and Scalise, of Jefferson Parish, played key roles. But the plan still could be undone by restless Republicans who want even steeper cuts. And a deadline looms: If no budget or temporary extension passes by March 14, the government could shut down. The plan would require House committees to reduce the budgets for agencies they oversee by a total of $1.5 trillion. For example, the House Agriculture Committee would need to cut $230 billion, an amount that indicates Republican lawmakers may look to change the requirements for receiving federal assistance like food stamps. On Tuesday night, Scalise told Fox Business: “We’re also identifying similar waste, improper
ä See BUDGET, page 5A
STAFF PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Mayor-President Sid Edwards listens as resident Ronnie Harris speaks during the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council meeting on Wednesday.
dedicated for Baton Rouge’s library move the library’s funding into the system to help raise salaries for city-parish general fund — was Baton Rouge Police Department of- met with opposition from library ficers. ä See LIBRARY, page 5A That proposal — which would
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, right, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, speak with reporters on Tuesday.
Advocates press state for answers on $3 billion coastal project BY MIKE SMITH
Staff writer
Coastal advocates are pressing state officials for answers on the future of the $3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project, an unprecedented wetlands res-
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to move forward with the project, but Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority executive director Glenn Ledet instead focused his comments on other large-scale works on the books for the coming fiscal year. The Mid-Barataria project was
long seen as the linchpin of the state’s coastal master plan, intended to both build land and nourish other marsh-building projects in the region by mimicking the geological processes that created south Louisiana. Long a goal of coastal advocates and a range of
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toration plan years in the works but recently thrown into doubt because of opposition from Gov. Jeff Landry. Few of those answers emerged at a public hearing Tuesday on the state’s annual coastal plan. Advocates there urged the state
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scientists, the project took off because of fines and settlement dollars paid out after the 2010 BP oil spill. But it has been controversial from the start, largely because of
ä See COASTAL, page 5A
100TH yEAR, NO. 228