EBR Metro Council reallocates funds to DA's office
BATON ROUGE— The East Baton Rouge Metro Council reallocated more than $800,000 to the District Attorney's office on Wednesday.
District Attorney Hillar Moore requested $2.9 million dollars from the Metro Council to maintain operations for the end of the year. If granted the whole request, it would have brought the office total budget to more than $11.6 million for the year.
"This is not for anything new. Nothing in addition, no raises, no additional salaries, just basic needs just to operate the office till the end of this year," Moore said.
This comes after parish voters rejected the DA's tax proposal in May. The tax would have added a 4-mill property tax for the next 20 years raising an estimated $24.4 million dollars for the office.
Within the past year, Moore said the office lost a third of its assistant district attorney's and several key support staff and they are at their breaking point.
"We can't afford any more cuts or any more loss of personnel. We're struggling as it is right now. People are working hard to make ends meet and do their job," Moore said.
In the breakdown of the $2.9 million dollar request, Moore listed $1.4 million for salaries, just over one million dollars for benefits, and $500,00 for emergency liquidity support.
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"Our office is mainly made up of salaries, healthcare benefits, retirement it goes along with the salaries. Copies, paper, you name it. Things like that that are typical to an office needs to run," he said.