BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Metro Council voted Tuesday to approve Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's $319M budget for 2018.

According to the mayor's office, the council voted unanimously to approve the budget, which had a less-than-one percent increase compared to last year's.

“While this budget has not changed much from last year, we will continue to work diligently on behalf of the citizens that we serve daily,” Mayor-President Broome said.

The mayor says she also met with the councilmembers to discuss funding for police and fire academies, as well as the replacement of police and fire vehicles. She added that efforts are being made to increase entry-level pay for police officers.