They made some mistakes, but they seem to be doing well on roughly a 5 million dollar a year budget, and a 6 million dollar a year income. In fact they now have almost a 20 million dollar surplus.

With a population of just over 27,500 and a budget of approximately 5 million dollars a year; it equates to under 182 dollars per person.

No wonder organizers of SG believe they can do plenty with 60 million dollars in revenue for their 107,000 or so citizens. In fact their proposed budget compared to Central's is very conservative.

This recent article in the Advocate lays out a strategy for a city with less government, but with the same services.
LINK

How did Central pull all this off without a tax increase? Well, one big thing was privatization. Instead of trying to patch road themselves, they have a contract with a private entity to do all public works. In fact there are only two full time city employees; an administrative officer and an asst. to the mayor.

Per the article other services are paid via property taxes as had been the case prior to Central incorporating.

quote:
Law enforcement is primarily handled by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. The city has an elected police chief who is paid and reserve officers who work as volunteers.

The Sheriff’s Office’s services are covered by property taxes residents in Central have always paid to the city-parish, Barrow said. Barrow also said the city includes approximately $100,000 in the city budget annually to pay to the Sheriff’s Office as a supplement for extra patrols in the city limits.

Central also pays the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control Center $114,000 a year for its services through an intergovernmental agreement, Barrow said.

The city-parish handles sewer and garbage services and residents still pay fees to the city-parish for those services, as do other city and parish residents.

The property taxes Central residents pay also go to toward other city-parish services, such as BREC, parish libraries and mosquito control

When Central incorporated, the city officials didn't cooperate. Getting to the bottom of the numbers was an issue then as it is today with SG.

quote:
One of the toughest parts of incorporation, Starns said, was trying to obtain detailed information needed from the city-parish about what exactly was collected in taxes in the area and what that money was spent on.

Starns said the city-parish was not cooperative with those seeking to incorporate Central and put out a steady stream of misinformation about the effort.

“Let’s just say their numbers were wrong,” Starns said.

Perhaps St. George is too big? Perhaps it isn't unified? That might be the case and others seem to agree.

quote:
Moak said Central also had something St. George doesn’t appear to possess.

“The community of Central was always known as Central. We were always a community, even before we incorporated. That feeling of community, I don’t know if St. George really has that,” Moak said.

Let's see how it all plays out, but looking at Central you can understand why some in St. George believe that may be the best way for their families and their neighbors.