BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish Government, along with several departments, such as the parish Library, Mosquito Abatement, and Council on Aging, must chart a new course forward after voters rejected Sid Edwards' THRIVE EBR plan.

The Mayor-President wanted to take $52 million from the library to help balance the city-parish budget. Now, the library must secure a new funding source.

"We're going to have to look at our 2026 proposed operating budget, which was already scaled back, and we're going to have to move some things around in that budget because now we're going to have to pay for a new election," EBR Assistant Library Director Mary Stein said.

Some of the repercussions of the library's vote failing could include changes to its book budget and to some program plans for the upcoming year.

"The library will begin to go into savings. Unlike your personal savings account, our fund balance is not just a savings account where you move money whenever you want. Generally, you only do a drawdown from fund balance for a major capital project, a disaster, or an emergency major expense," Stein said.

Stein says the library could realistically operate on savings for a year to 18 months, but that its savings were never a surplus. She added that any new funding would come in 2027.

"And depending on election dates, it might not be until 2028," Stein said.

Edwards had also hoped to tap revenue from EBR Mosquito Abatement and the Council on Aging. Both agencies' property tax collections are still in place through next year.

Baton Rouge business expert Rolfe McCollister said he did not vote for THRIVE, despite saying he likes Edwards.

"The mayor got some bad advice in the beginning of the year from those who said make a money grab on the library, and that really upset a lot of people, and I think that was a big mistake, and he should question those on his team that offered him that advice now," McCollister said.

THRIVE failing at the ballot will certainly not help the city-parish budget, which already calls for personnel cuts.

“Eleven percent cuts across the board. The jobs that we spoke about that would be deleted, 200 will be deleted, and I think there are 222 or 230 that people will be laid off," EBR Metro Councilwoman Jen Racca said.

WBRZ reached out to the Mayor-President's office on Sunday to see if Edwards could do an interview. They declined, saying he was unavailable.

EBR Metro Councilman Rowdy Gaudet was asked if the city-parish had any words for people who would be laid off.

"I don't want to get ahead of anything, that's why I think calling folks immediately and outlining your process and your next steps is greatly important. If you don't communicate with those folks in the immediate term, then rumors start to run rampant, and you just don't want to get into that business," Gaudet said.

The Mayor-President's office said notices will go out to parish department heads on Monday, directing them to put together their layoff plans. Subsequently, all employees will receive notice that this process has started. Actual layoffs will happen in the first quarter of next year.