BATON ROUGE – City leaders canceled a proposal to add a property tax to fund raises for police officers, it appears.

WBRZ political reporter Mark Armstrong tweeted Wednesday, momentum for the measure slowed and Councilman Matt Watson, who initially brought the idea to the council, removed it from the council agenda.

"It is not the time and this is not the method," Watson said Wednesday. 

When first written, the tax proposal explicitly stated an 8-mill assessment must be used “entirely and exclusively” to provide funds for increasing salaries and benefits of the BRPD.  Residential property valued at $150,000 would be taxed about $60 a year.

Watson says it's now up to Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome to find funding for the pay raises in the existing city-parish budget. Broome responded she has an "open-door policy" and is ready to hear the council's ideas concerning the budget.

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