BATON ROUGE – East Baton Rouge voters on Saturday approved continued funding for their local library system, rejecting complaints in some quarters that a 9.5-mill property tax raised too much money for 15 branches throughout the parish.

The library tax proposal is intended to generate $59.5 million a year for a system that pays its own way – salaries, construction and maintenance. Libraries in similar-sized cities often rely on their local government’s general funds to pay for some of their operations, local library officials said to counter arguments that they raised too much money.

Eleven years ago, voters approved a tax renewal by a 58-42 margin. In Saturday’s vote, with about a quarter of precincts reporting unofficial returns, the tax proposal was leading by a 2-1 margin. It enjoyed support in most areas of the parish where the votes had been tallied.

A library tax proposal went before voters last year as part of Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ “Thrive” plan. He wanted to tap funds intended for the library, Council on Aging and local pest control to help balance the city-parish budget and fund police pay raises. After the Thrive plan failed, the city-parish found other means to raise police pay.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Library has 300,000 card-holders, making it the largest system in the state.