re: Louisiana Supreme Court just accepted the St. George incorporation case

It's all about the money. At the heart of the issue is that people are NOT getting any value for the amount of taxes they pay. Entitlements, salaries, benefits, etc. Too many city deadbeats sucking on the tit showing no progress on anything except drawing a salary.

The BR side is trying to muddy the water and throw as much shite as possible up to prevent an incorporation.


IIRC, the first BR victory claimed that the incorporation would have a disparate impact on BR.

The second victory ignored that and instead decided that the petition was invalid because having a link to the plan of government on the petition isn’t sufficient.


It comes down to BR attempting to find anything possible to prevent the area from incorporating and, thus, removing those tax dollars from the general fund.

That the general fund’s spending, by statute, directly benefit BR over Baker, Central, Zachary, and the unincorporated areas should be its own fricking case. IIRC, half the general fund is earmarked toward BRPD and BRFD, which only covers BR and, in the case of BRFD, not the entirety of BR. Independent fire districts cover much of the parish.

Thank you.

There were two petitions.

The “gerrymandered” areas didn’t WANT to be in St George or were a major legal hassle for the first petition (renters moving between signing the petition and signatures being verified), which was why they weren’t on the second petition.

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Can't Landry basically sign off on the election once he's in and moot all of this?

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I think he can appoint a transitional government after the ruling. All of which will be conservative republicans, I'm sure.

Landry being elected over Wilson is likely a good thing for St. George residents. Honestly I think Wilson would have been governor of New Orleans only and snubbed his nose at the rest of the state. So as much as I don't like Landry, I'm glad Wilson isn't there.

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To me Central makes sense. Look at a map of Central and then look at the gerrymandering map of St. George.

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It’s gerrymandered because they excluded areas that overwhelmingly voted against incorporation last time.

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Can't Landry basically sign off on the election once he's in and moot all of this? Or are we past that point with what the courts have ruled?

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JBE actually signed everything that he was required to by law that sets the transition up. Basically it’s in the courts hands.

The St. George group has continued to have their transition meetings as required. The city of Baton Rouge has never shown up to the transition meetings.

Where Landry comes in is that he would be able to name the first mayor and set the election. JBE could have put someone favorable to him and his cronies in the spot, but he will be out by the time of the ruling.

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they have been feeding EBR their money and seeing nothing come of it.

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Interesting . . . nothing in return except for significant amount of infrastructure upgrades that was a catalyst for growth over the last 30 years.

St. George is nothing more than a utopian wet dream for those that live in that area. In reality that area is getting run down quickly and in a few years it will not be any different than Sherwood Forrrest, O’Neal Lane, etc. no matter what you call it or who is governing it.

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It doesn’t look nearly as bad as the Congressional Districts the Federal Court is pushing. In Louisiana? Where can I get a shot of these districts?

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LINK

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There was never a first vote… those were just the areas with the lowest yield of signatures vs residents in the area.

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Correct, and the city limits of Baton Rouge are also very inconsistent in that area. They've annexed some residential developments in the 70s and 80s then abruptly stopped for some reason. So a lot of the newer in fill developments that are primarily residential are still unincorporated while older developments right across the street are in the Baton Rouge city limits. So the city limits of Baton Rouge on the south and east side are a lot of weird boundaries that aren't based on typography or anything other than the timing of when the land was developed and the agenda of the city government that day.

My attitude is that 100% of the St. George boundaries are in unincorporated East Baton Rouge. The voters there wanted it, so they should get it - and that includes responsibilities that come with governing a city including hosting elections, hiring or subcontracting entities to run the government, and possibly even setting up their own police force and school district (which they actually want to do).

If Baton Rouge wanted those neighborhoods, they should have at least tried to annex them. But they didn't - and some of those unincorporated areas now are seeking to be the city of St. George. They voted for it and they should get it. The delay tactics and lawsuits are table stakes and bullshite IMO.