BATON ROUGE - Starting Monday, collection begins for the additional half-cent sales tax in East Baton Rouge Parish. The tax, for MovEBR, was approved by voters in December.

As the tax goes into effect today, the metro council is a little more than a week away from officially approving the appropriation of $35 million for MovEBR. That's the amount expected to be generated by the sales tax from now through the end of the year.

Officials say food and prescription drugs will be exempt from the tax, which runs until March 31, 2049.

According to a MovEBR presentation from August, the tax is expected to generate about $46 million per year. With the city-parish taking out bonds, work is going to start before all the funds are collected. Officials say the money can only be spent on projects outlined in Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s proposal.

The plan will see new lane capacity improvements, improvements to existing roadways, repairs on community roads, and more.