BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore proposed a new property tax in the face of budget cuts to the District Attorney's Office.

"We have the desire, we have the want, the people here to do it, but we need more to do our best job," Moore said. "I'm not for new taxes myself, but I understand that we have to have taxes in certain circumstances and times. Like the firemen tax that passed, it was for that, it is costly, but it is costly to be publicly safe."

The City-Parish of East Baton Rouge recently released its proposed budget for 2025. The District Attorney's Office requested a budget increase of around four percent. Instead, the proposed budget shows a decrease in the DA's budget by five percent.

One Metro Council Member said East Baton Rouge could see more tax proposals like this one.

"To seek a property tax millage to fund a very important very critical office for law enforcement and for public safety in our Parish, I think it's what we're going to see from several entities. Maybe not necessarily a property tax from everyone, but creative ways to try to fund important services in the parish," District Three Metro Council Member Rowdy Gaudet said.

Eric Smith is running for the Metro Council District One seat. He said before a new tax is on the ballot, all options should be considered.

"Is the money in the budget? Talk to the council members, talk to the mayor, talk to the legislature before you go to the people," Smith said. "The taxpayers are overloaded right now."

WBRZ reached out to incumbent District One Metro Council Member Brandon Noel, and has not heard back.

Moore said the funding is needed because the number of homicides remains high in the parish.

"This year, we're already at 100, those are the toughest cases, the ones that move more slowly, that's the ones that really drag everything down. It's a problem that other cities do not have, It's a problem that we have," Moore said.

Moore said the tax would ideally put the EBR District Attorney's Office on par with other large parishes.

"When you look at other jurisdictions, like Orleans and Jefferson, their budgets are 22 to 24 million a year. Our budget with all the grants and all the funding that we receive is around 14 [million], so we're way behind," Moore said.

The public meeting for the property tax is Monday at 5:30 p.m. on the fifth floor of City Hall.