BATON ROUGE – The East Baton Rouge Council on Aging is entering 2019 trying to head off an attempt at throttling its property tax collection.

In a letter sent to benefactors and supporters this week, the head of the board overseeing the Council on Aging blasted an idea floated over the last few weeks by members of the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council to review tax collections of agencies funded by dedicated taxes and toy with rolling back millages to try and create millages with the difference to fund other agencies.

The Council on Aging successfully lobbied voters in November 2016 for a ten-year, 2.25 mill property tax. Last year, the tax raised about $1.5 million more than was projected when the tax was approved.

“We oppose any actions by the Metro Council which would reduce the funds East Baton Rouge Parish voters approved to be allocated to the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging for senior services,” Jennifer Moisant, chairwoman of the agency’s board, wrote to Metro Council members and then shared with supporters.

“[In 2018], we spent 9.5 million of the 9 million in tax millage received,” Moisant wrote.

“…Our current budget… includes the unexpected additional tax revenue and has been dedicated” to agency services, Moisant said as she argued to the city’s governing body that it still doesn’t have enough money – and could use more.

“...Senior needs in this Parish still aren’t being fully met at our current income level,” Moisant said.

Baton Rouge politicians will start discussing the possibility of a taxation committee at its next meeting in two weeks. 

Click HERE to read the letter from the Council on Aging.

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