BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge council members are discussing possible solutions going forward to address funding issues, as the clock is ticking for them to pass their 2026 budget.

"I think you heard the discussion tonight about, you know, asking all the municipalities within the parish to contribute to the constitutional offices. I think there are some conversations going on in that respect right now," East Baton Rouge Metro Council Member Laurie Adams said.

The current budget deficit, along with the creation of the city of St. George, seems to have sparked some of those conversations about how to address funding issues in the future.

Laurie Adams also serves as the Budget Committee Chair. She says she has heard discussions surrounding the de-consolidation of the parish over the last few days and even years, but she feels it's a massive change that voters may not support.

"I think you hear a lot of people talking about it, but when things get put down on paper and people start asking questions and information and misinformation start rolling around, I don't see that vote going through," Adams said.

EBR Metro Councilman, Dwight Hudson, says he would be open to the idea of creating an East Baton Rouge Parish General Fund and a City of Baton Rouge General Fund.

"I do think that we first have to look at our own structure here at city-parish, not only do we fund constitutional offices here, but we fund things for the city of Baton Rouge as well. If you add all those up, they actually cost more than the 2% sales tax that's generated in those areas," Hudson said.

Hudson says separating the budgets may be something that the Metro Council will look into for the next calendar year. He says there is no time to do it before voting on the 2026 budget.