BATON ROUGE - As East Baton Rouge leaders prepare the city-parish budget for the next year, it's clear the city is strapped for cash.

Just months into his job as Mayor-President, Sid Edwards introduced what eventually became the Thrive EBR plan, which would have reallocated funds within the city-parish to pay down debts and compensate employees competitively. After seven months, the plan went to voters, but ultimately did not pass.

When the tax plan was first announced, it came with the promise of a pay raise for certain departments. Since voters defeated the tax plan Saturday night, jobs have already been cut in the mayor-president's office, though it's not clear what impact that will have on the future of those proposed raises.

As was outlined in the proposed city-parish budget presented at the beginning of the month, more than 200 jobs could be cut, and another 220 vacant positions could be left that way.

Baton Rouge Police Union President Brandon O'Neal says the police department has been underpaid since he started working there nearly 20 years ago. Over the past year, he's seen many officers leave BRPD for the promise of a higher-paying job at another agency.

"You're not even a police officer yet for state police, and you make what a captain makes for Baton Rouge police," O'Neal said.

According to the Mayor-President's office, BRPD is about 150 officers short, with many officers working overtime.

"People say they don't care about Baton Rouge, well, you don't care about Baton Rouge crime spills over into Central, it spills into Baker, it spills into Livingston Parish," O'Neal said.

Others say it would be unfair to give a raise to one agency while demanding layoffs for others.

"My expectation is that nobody should be getting a raise right now if we're having to lay off positions," Metro Council member Darryl Hurst said. "I would rather that money go into making sure people have jobs right before the holidays. That's the worst part."