BATON ROUGE — “There is hope, Spanishtown!” Baton Rouge Metro Council members discussed options for security coverage for the Spanishtown Mardi Gras parade, along with other parades and events held in Baton Rouge.
With approximately two months until Spanishtown rolls, Spanishtown President Robert King and former President Bill Brumfield pleaded their case before the Metro Council at its 2026 Budget Hearing, citing the economic impacts that the parade and its associated events bring to the city.
Using numbers from Visit Baton Rouge, King said that the parade has a $2.8 million direct impact and a $1.8 million indirect impact on Baton Rouge. King estimated that around $200,000 would go into the city-parish’s funds. In addition, Spanishtown donates to multiple nonprofits and charities in the local area.
“We more than generate the money that is necessary for the police to be paid, what it takes is an allocation of that money to the police department. And I love the police department. They do a great job for us,” Brumfield said.
The organization’s president said that if the organization has to start paying for police presence—which would be the first time in 45 years—the non-profit organizations would not be able to receive any funds from Spanishtown.
“But unlike some other entities, we’re not just asking for you to give us money. We’re just asking you to use the money that we’re creating for you to help us continue to create for the city of Baton Rouge,” Brumfield said.
Councilman Cleve Dunn suggested creating criteria for a policy or ordinance that events such as the parades would apply to to receive police coverage.
“I’m of the opinion that we have to reimagine and rethink how we do things, specifically things like this,” Dunn said. “We need to build out a policy that everybody can understand and adhere to also.”
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Councilwoman Jennifer Racca said she understands the economic and social benefit of not only Spanishtown, but other parades such as Orion and Artemis, but that there are concerns of the costs in the midst of the city’s budget crisis.
“When we do have a parade, it’s not just the police that the city-parish has to pay for. We have to pay DPW workers to put out all the guard railings. We have to pay for the porta-potties. We have to pay for the cleanup afterwards. So those prices, those numbers, do begin to accrue,” she said.
She went on to say that Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ office is working on hosting a meeting for the leaders of parades and events to discuss the forecast for 2026 and where things stand.
“We also discussed alternative methods to security, and what that may look like for you guys to decrease some of those costs, to piggyback on top of that, we talked about private security, and we talked about all, all the potential options that they may have,” Racca said.
For Mardi Gras 2026, King said the anticipated police cost alone is about $75,000, which would be 110 officers at roughly $75 an hour.
“They do have ways to reduce the cost for security,” Racca said. “They do have measures in place that I think that they can present to you all to where it will decrease the cost and the $75,000 price tag is not there. We can all work together on this. We can hopefully come to a solution.”
BRPD Chief TJ Morse spoke and said that $75 an hour was an absurd number, and the cost would be more in line with $50-55 an hour, which is what the majority of his officers make on overtime. He said that providing police presence to events like Spanishtown is a matter of “the bottom line.”
“When we’re looking at budgeted $4 million for overtime, and we’re spending about $8 million, we have to make cuts in overtime places,” Morse said.
In addition to BRPD, the Constable’s Office also works parades, according to Constable Terrica Williams. Morse added that last year’s parade could not be filled with BRPD presence alone, but that the law enforcement agency reached out to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, ABC, and other agencies.
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