re: Budget comparisons between St George & other Louisiana cities

quote:

---

Currently property owners inside the city limits pay 13.12 mills in property taxes designated as "Baton Rouge City Tax" that property owners outside the city limits don't pay. LINK

---

Of those 13.2 mills, 6.9 are immediately identifiable as unnecessary for St George. The "Three Platoon Police System" tax (whatever that is) is unnecessary because St George will have law enforcement services provided by the Sheriff's dept as it currently does, and as the citizens there currently already pay for. Likewise, the millage for the BR fire department is unnecessary because St George residents already pay for fire services through millages in the "Other taxing authorities" section at your link.

Here's the mystery for me- the "General fund" dollars. City of BR residents have a dedicated millage for the general fund. I'm not sure where the money for the general fund is raised from persons living outside incorporated BR. I'm assuming it's in the "Parish" millage which is a smaller millage than the BR residents' "General fund" millage.

All that said, this topic is way more complex than simply looking at per-capita or per-square mile spending of cities. there are too many variables, especially considering the number of parish services utilized by the St George area which would ostensibly continue to be utilized in the same way resulting in no new liability for the new city.