Organizers behind the controversial city of St. George will soon actualize its incorporation after the Louisiana Supreme Court dropped its historic ruling in their favor Friday, overturning the previous decisions of lower courts.
The new city of St. George will include at least 86,000 residents between Essen Lane and the southeast parish line, making it one of the largest cities in the state. It will also be East Baton Rouge Parish’s fifth city, along with Baton Rouge, Central, Baker and Zachary.
Initially in charge of the handover will be a five-member St. George Transition District created by the state Legislature in 2020 that will serve as the taxing authority until an election is held to impose its municipal tax.
Baton Rouge leaders also face difficult hurdles ahead as they figure out how the city-parish’s budget will shift — and where resources may have to be cut — in response to the court’s ruling.
St. George originally won its election in 2019 by 54% of the vote after nearly a decade of campaigning for more localized control of tax dollars and petitioning residents. But Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole sued organizers soon after over concerns it would cost the city-parish $48 million in annual tax revenue, devastating city-parish services and potentially triggering layoffs.
The proposed city paused incorporation efforts for five years while tied up in court proceedings. A district court judge sided with Broome and Cole in 2022, ruling that St. George couldn’t operate with a balanced budget and was “unreasonable.” The First Circuit Court of Appeal again blocked the incorporation last year on grounds that organizers did not comply with state law when trying to get on the election ballot.
The appeals court also removed Broome from the lawsuit for lack of standing.
St. George’s leadership
According to the most recent St. George Transition District agenda on its website, dated April 11, 2022, the district’s members include chairman Norman Browning, vice chairman Chris Rials, Dustin Yates, Murrell and a yet-to-be-named appointee from Broome. Broome’s office told the Baton Rouge Business Report in 2022 they did not believe the transition district existed while litigation was still pending.
The St. George Transition District continued to hold meetings in recent years even though the incorporation was blocked by lower courts and the district lacked a member.
Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican, will select an interim mayor for the city of St. George, along with five council members. Following the first term, St. George residents will vote for its leaders.
St. George organizers have long claimed the creation of the city would not require any additional taxes for its residents, as the city would collect revenue from an existing 2% sales tax.
Broome and city leaders argued that the new city’s budget would cause them to operate with a deficit from its inception, but the Supreme Court's ruling says the calculations were inaccurate and that the city could provide public services with a balanced budget.
According to the Supreme Court, St. George’s annual operating cost will be $47.81 million — which would be within the revenue estimate of $48 million — not $51 million, as determined by lower courts.
Emergency services
The city of St. George is required by law to have a chief of police, but leaders plan to utilize the same police protection currently offered by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. They have also planned to earmark $4 million in annual tax revenue to pay for additional law enforcement protection from the Sheriff’s Office.
St. George will also continue to receive fire protection from the St. George Fire Department, which is already funded by a 14-mill property tax. The Baton Rouge Water Co. and Entergy will continue to provide utility services.
According to the Supreme Court, St. George “will privatize most, if not all,” of its public services, including drainage maintenance, street repairs, traffic control issues, street sign maintenance, litter control and weather-related emergency services.
A school system?
The St. George movement originated over a decade ago as a fight to create a new, independent school district separate from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.
Parents — whose children are likely matured and beyond their grade-school years by now — were displeased with the education provided in the public school system and wanted their tax dollars to benefit them more directly. A key stumbling block to getting their plan off the ground was that they didn't have their own municipality.
East Baton Rouge Parish’s other incorporated cities all have their own school districts. While state law doesn’t require a public school district to be connected with a municipality, the status of Baker, Zachary and Central as cities showed they were political entities that were capable of running their own school systems.
But a new city of St. George doesn’t automatically create the new school district, which may actually prove to be a more difficult process than the incorporation itself.
The final decision, at least under current law, will rest with voters both across the state and across the whole of East Baton Rouge Parish. That is a much higher bar than the city of St. George faced in 2019 when its incorporation was voted on only by the citizens living within the boundaries of the proposed city.
And winning a parishwide vote, if it reaches that point, will likely be more difficult for St. George than it was for Baker, Central and Zachary due to the years of rancor kicked up by the St. George incorporation fight, as well as the difficulty of persuading voters outside of St. George that a new school district is a good idea.
A legislative effort is now underway to remove legal barriers that make it very hard to create new public school districts in Louisiana. In removing those barriers, it could activate the breakaway district in southeast Baton Rouge — a forerunner to St. George — that was the subject of a battle over a decade ago. That district won a majority vote of the Legislature, but was never funded because the accompanying constitutional amendment fell short of a two-thirds majority.
A new St. George school district would cause a significant amount of disruption. According to school system estimates from 2019, a school district that matched the boundaries of the city of St. George would compel nearly 4,000 children to change schools as a result.
The departure of the relatively affluent southeast Baton Rouge area would also take with it significant local tax revenue, likely leaving the rest of the East Baton Rouge school system with more struggling schools as well as a higher proportion of children living in poverty.
Baton Rouge’s plans
Broome said in a news conference Friday that the only remaining legal move would be for Cole to ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing, though it was not immediately clear Friday if he would do so.
Several businesses and organizations, including the LSU campus, the Mall of Louisiana and L’Auberge Casino have already been annexed into Baton Rouge so as not to be included in the new city of St. George.
Broome said her office had been planning for this potential outcome and that she will determine the best course of action in the coming days. She declined to give specifics on potential budgetary changes.
“As the mayor-president, I do have a responsibility to thoroughly examine the financial implications of this historic decision and safeguard the vitality of our over 200-year-old city,” Broome said. “When potential tax increases or threats to basic services that affect our citizens’ quality of life are at stake, it’s crucial we proceed with careful consideration.”
Both she and St. George organizers said they plan to work with one another on the incorporation effort moving forward. Broome is running for reelection for mayor this fall, and St. George residents will still be able to vote in her election because of her role as parish president.
St. George leaders will host a news conference Monday morning to provide additional information.
