BATON ROUGE – An estimating tool launched by the East Baton Rouge Parish government showing what property owners could pay if an upcoming fee is approved to fund flood control is incomplete less than two weeks before Metro Council is set to vote on the measure, WBRZ has learned.

The WBRZ Investigative Unit has noticed properties have shown no fee for days while others have shown large sums.  When asked Monday, Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s office told WBRZ, the fee data is not available for all properties in the parish yet.

It was not immediately clear when all properties may show the cost of the fee, though the mayor’s office claims the values seen on properties with a fee amount are accurate.

The Metro Council is scheduled to vote on the controversial fee next week (Oct. 26).  The fee will be attached to property tax bills, although supporters are quick to argue the fee is not a tax.

The fee, sold as a Stormwater Utility Fee, would fund storm water control – drainage projects – and is being pushed amid a threat of a federal government consent decree.

"We're intervening and making an efficiency around addressing our stormwater issues that are critical for this city and for this parish," Mayor Broome said earlier in this month when announcing the proposal. "It's a fee, and more importantly, it's something that has to be done; we don't have a lot of alternatives."

If approved by councilmembers, the fee would show up on property tax bills in 2023.

The parish maintains no one is exempt from the utility fee.  The city-parish says there will be a financial assistance policy, but how it will work is yet to be determined. Property owners will also be able to appeal the amount of impervious space they have.