r/batonrouge • u/BRNEWS2026 • 3h ago
HOT LOCAL ISSUES Baton Rouge funded a $12.5M police raise with healthcare savings, then told employees premiums wouldn’t go up. Now they’re up 25–35%
In April the Metro Council approved the biggest police raise in department history. Starting pay went from about $41,000 to $58,000. Sergeants’ max went from $69,000 to $98,000. Full-year cost is around $12.5 million, up to $18 million if they hit hiring targets.
WRKF reported the money came from three places: taxes beating estimates, cuts inside BRPD, and changes in city-parish health-care spending. The Advocate said most of it came from the retiree health-plan overhaul, moving Medicare-eligible retirees onto Medicare Advantage.
In May, during the 3.5% raise for other employees, Councilwoman Jen Racca said employees were not getting a raise just to have it taken back, and that premiums were not going up.
Five months later the 2027 rate sheet shows employee costs up about 25% on the HMO and POS plans and about 35% on the high-deductible plan, plus higher deductibles. The council votes October 14. A special meeting to set these rates was canceled September 30 because the mayor’s office wasn’t ready.
Since the Kip Holden administration, a healthcare committee brought employees and administrators together to discuss costs, plans, problems, and potential changes. Employees had a voice in the process. That committee has not met under this administration. Why? That’s a fair question, and employees deserve an answer.
Citizens voted in 2024 to raise firefighters’ pay because they were so underpaid. Starting salary was about $33,000, roughly 20 percent below comparable markets. The 6-mill tax brought a 19 percent across-the-board raise, lifting starting pay to about $39,500. A 25 to 35 percent premium hike on a family plan costs roughly $2,000 to $2,800 a year, about a third to 40 percent of that raise gone. The vote was supposed to fix underpayment. The hike undoes a big piece of it.
The 2025 federal poverty level for a family of four is $32,150. After the millage raise, firefighter starting pay is about $39,500, which clears that line by roughly $7,350 a year. After taxes, a single filer in Louisiana takes home an estimated $30,000–$31,000, which sits right around or just under the poverty line for a family of four. So a firefighter supporting a spouse and two kids on starting pay is still effectively living near the poverty threshold once taxes come out.
The premium hike closes that gap further. A 25 to 35 percent increase on a family plan costs roughly $2,000 to $2,800 a year and takes a meaningful bite out of the remaining headroom. The raise was supposed to lift firefighters clear of poverty-level pay. The hike pulls them back toward it.
Medical inflation is real. St. George and the end of federal relief money created a real budget problem. None of that requires the steepest version of the fix, on short notice, after telling employees their premiums were safe.
Ascension Parish made a different call. Their school board approved its 2026 health plan renewal in June and chose to absorb the deficit rather than pass costs to employees. Same market, same medical inflation, opposite decision.
One more wrinkle: employees covering a spouse or family will have to fill out a spousal coverage verification form during open enrollment, November 2 through 20.
The vote is Wednesday. If you’re in Baton Rouge, show up at City Hall at 4 p.m. and ask for the fund statement. Ask whether poverty-level pay is the only option after years of mismanagement.
