BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – Voters in East Baton Rouge Parish denied a property tax that would have funded a mental health center in East Baton Rouge.

55,822 EBR voters, 51%, voted to not fund the crisis center, while 52,682, 49%, voted for the tax. The margin of victory was only 140 votes.
The proposed tax was a 10 year, 1.5-mill property tax that would have generated an estimated $6.1 million a year for crisis a stabilization center in EBR.
The center would have provided short-term behavioral health services to adults experiencing a mental health crisis. Supporters of the plan say the project could have meant less people in jail, possibly saving tax payers millions of dollars in the long-run.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux is one of several parish leaders asking people to vote for a 1.5-mill property tax that would fund a crisis stabilization center.