BATON ROUGE - Mayor Sharon Weston Broome has proposed a $1.1 billion dollar budget, but only a portion of that is available for Metro Council to spend on services.

The money is divided up to pay for services like juvenile and city court, but this year in particular less money is available.

The budget shows that 236 employees’ jobs could be frozen and 41 city-parish jobs could be outright eliminated to meet a tight budget in the next year. That means there could be changes to the government services as the city-parish adjusts to new circumstances.

Metro Council member Rowdy Gaudet says it’s time for the council to consider how money is allocated.

“They’re facing some tough choices,” he said. “We’ve got to look hard at city services, the cuts they’re facing, and do we fund those in a more traditional way, meaning from the city of Baton Rouge.”

About $196 million dollars of one-time money could be used to pay for a variety of agencies from the Public Defender’s Office to the Big Buddy Program. American Rescue Plan funds are federal one-time dollars that the city-parish must spend by 2026.

"I think we have to look holistically at how they've traditionally been funded, where that funding has come from, and see if we need to reallocate," Gaudet said.

Some have argued about why Baton Rouge is in its deficit. Some blame the formation of St. George for potentially taking a chunk of the budget, and others have pointed to EBR mismanaging money.

“St. George has caused us to look more critically at the budget. We've had municipalities form in the past in East Baton Rouge Parish, and we haven't felt this significant of a financial hit. We now are saying wait a minute, we've got to look holistically at this budget.”