BATON ROUGE — The East Baton Rouge Metro Council on Wednesday shot down tax increases for several agencies and commissions.

With property values going up after a recent reassessment, many government offices that rely on property taxes anticipated a bump in revenue.

However, council members had different ideas for the Council on Aging, Emergency Medical Services and taxes earmarked for fire department salaries and police patrols.

"A good thing in East Baton Rouge Parish is that our property values came in higher. So these entities that receive tax dollars through millage. If they're asking to roll forward, they would keep the same tax amount, but the amount of revenue they receive to that entity would increase," District 3 Councilman Rowdy Gaudet said.

At the Metro Council, higher tax revenues require approval from eight of its 12 members. At its meeting Wednesday night, council members opted against "rolling forward" the funding for EMS, fire department salaries, the Council on Aging and the 'Three Platoon Police System.'

WBRZ spoke to District 11 Councilwoman Laurie Adams, who voted against the tax increases.

"I think right now, as families are trying to figure out how to do the same things, afford the same things, take care of their loved ones in the same way with the same funds, families cannot roll their income forward," Adams said.

For the average home and business owner, this means they should pay about the same in taxes as they did last year. For the aging and public safety agencies involved, they'll receive about the same amount they took in previously — but rising expenses could eventually hurt them.

The Council on Aging was expected to see an increase in taxes attributed to the millage increase of $756,740. EMS was expected to see an increase of $1,106,010. The Fire Salaries and Benefits fund was going to increase by $807,190, while the Three Platoon Police Tax was set for an $129,130 increase.

Councilman Gaudet was one of the seven that voted to roll forward.

"So we had fire chiefs come forward, we had fire departments come forward, we had police departments come forward and say we also are experiencing higher insurance costs, higher costs of personnel, higher costs of equipment, and we're still being asked to provide the same level of services," Gaudet said.

Gaudet says there is an option for council members to reconsider their decision by the end of the year.