BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge Parish Library officials said Monday it will ask the mayor-president's office to delete its proposal that would shift money from the library's dedicated funds to the parish's general fund, instead hoping to work together with the mayor on a compromise. 

Assistant Director of the Library Mary Stein told the Baton Rouge Press Club that she hopes the decision will ultimately help resolve the current issue.
 
"The cleanest solution was for us to voluntarily delete the motion with the understanding that we would work with our metro council members and our public officials on a compromise that everybody can be comfortable with and if we can't reach that compromise we would come back with the original resolution," Stein said. 

Mayor-President Sid Edwards, who proposed the funding shift, was at press club when Stein called for the deletion of the plan. Edwards previously said that the library has a "budget surplus" from "years of over-taxation of citizens," a statement refuted by the library last week.

Stein says the library system will consider lowering its proposed property tax rate even more in an effort to help the city-parish balance its books. She noted that they will not give up revenue that has been received and renewed by voters for years.

"What we are unwilling to compromise on is being undedicated because the dedication of the funds is the only thing that has allowed us to bring the library system to the public because it's the only the library asked us for," she said. 

Library officials previously said they would cooperate with the city-parish, but only up to a point. They said that they were willing to tweak the proposal as long as the revenue it generates stays within its system.

The library board has two meetings planned this week to discuss its property tax. One meeting is Wednesday at 5 p.m. and the other is Thursday at 4 p.m. Both meetings will be at the main library branch on Goodwood Boulevard.

WBRZ previously reported that Edwards' proposal will be introduced to the Metro Council and then scheduled for a public hearing on March 14. A separate proposal by the library to decrease millage rates will be voted on after a public hearing as well.

Ultimately, any changes to taxes — including Edwards' proposal — will be voted on by taxpayers in October if they are passed.

Baton Rouge residents recently signed a petition entitled “Keep Your Hands Off My Library” to block the mayor-president’s proposal.

The petition was started by a change.org user named Alexis Anderson. The petition describes the parish library system as “the best asset this community has.”

Some residents say they approved the property tax expecting the funds to go solely to the library system. 

“These are dedicated tax funds approved by the voters, not an ATM for the city-parish to dip into a pinch,” a user named Bill said.

“We voted to allocate that millage for the library. The end. Not the general fund. Not the police. The library,” a user named Conni said.

The petition can be found here.