BATON ROUGE - While the city-parish budget is almost always released during the first week of November, this year, it also coincides with a storied tax election. Without passage of the three-part Thrive EBR tax plan, Mayor-President Sid Edwards has said there would be budget cuts throughout the city-parish government.

The proposed city-parish budget shows which departments are expected to get staffing cuts and program cuts.

Following the overview of potential staffing and program reductions, Mayor-President Sid Edwards last week presented the proposed city-parish budget to the East Baton Rouge Metro Council, noting that each department could expect cuts of up to 12%.

Metro Council member Aaron Moak says it's a tough task to work through the budget.

"We've done an analysis of every single department and what can be cut, and where the cuts can be made if needed," Moak said.

Staff reductions will account for cuts in some departments. According to Moak, that's more than 400 positions, about half of which are already vacant.

"We have to prepare this budget based on a worst-case scenario," Moak said.

Based on the proposed budget, one of the departments that doesn't show staffing cuts is the Mayor-President's office, which shows the same number of employees in the 2025 and the proposed 2026 budget. WBRZ asked Mayor-President Sid Edwards, and he said those cuts are on the way.

"They're coming," Edwards said. "We're going to cut the third floor."

Looking further into the budget, funding for the Mayor-President's office was reduced by 11% through reduced programs like summer youth and educational programs.

Moaks says that since last year, positions within the Mayor's office have shifted, like the Chief Administrative Officer, who transitioned to a new role as Chief Efficiency Officer. He added that the positions in the mayor's office are some of the highest-paid positions, but the salaries combined don't make up a large fraction of the total budget.

"There are a lot of high-paid positions because those are the positions that are heads of departments," Moak said.