BATON ROUGE - The 'Thrive East Baton Rouge' plan will appear on ballots starting on Nov. 1 for early voting, and while the plan has been in the works for months, there are still questions about how many changes it will make parish-wide.

Voters will see three propositions to renew millages for the library, council on aging, and mosquito control. Renewal means funding can be used to pay debt, balance the budget, and fund stormwater projects.

"As a council member, my job is to make the parish better, not worse," Metrocouncil member Darryl Hurst said. "I need the yes vote to continue the work we've been doing."

Existing millages are not new taxes, but some residents may see slight cost increases. Some funds will go to new uses.

"We are facing some substantial budget cuts," Metrocouncil member Jen Racca said.

The reasons, Racca said, are inflation and the city-parish's reliance on federal money.

"When we had those ARPA dollars, we had interest that we were living off of, and those interest dollars are now gone," Racca said.

If the propositions don't pass, the city-parish estimates there will be 12 percent cuts to every department, such as public works.

"The manpower or the funding won't be there to be able to buy the materials, hire the people that you need to fix the equipment that may need to be done," Fred Raiford, Director of Transportation, said.

Mosquito Abatement and the Council on Aging's millages don't expire until next year. If they failed this year, they could come back and try again next year. For the library, it's a different story. That millage expires in December.

"They would not have any operating money if it were to fail," Mason Batts with the Mayor-President's office said.

The library would have to dip into its reserve, then it would have to put a new proposal before voters at a later date. There has been discussion online about this portion of the Thrive plan and whether it would negatively impact the library's budget.

"It does -- but this was a plan brought to us by these agencies," Batts said. "That first plan happened, and that was shelved. These agencies understand that they have to work with the parish government as well."

Early voting starts Nov. 1 and election day is Nov. 15.