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

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City Parish merger of 1980 and the federal government causing issues over vote dilution due to annexation are part of the issue.


Can’t annex a ton of suburbs full of white people because it dilutes the black vote.

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I didn't know that's why they stopped. That's interesting that they cared about voter dilution when the city/parish sort of merged some of their government functions.

I guess on the same coin, why bother annexing when you are getting their tax dollars anyways but not providing city police patrols, etc.?

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It started with a school district and quickly worked into a full fledged city. St. George tried to do it all at once and the judges determined that they couldn't pull it off financially.

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There's a lot of inaccuracy here. The City of Central incorporated in 2005. The Central school district did not open until 2007 - those schools were still part of the EBR system before that.

Before the incorporation attempt of St. George, organizers attempted to form an ISD in EBR that was bounded by I-10 to the west, I-12 to the north, and the parish lines to the east and south. It was brought to the legislature where several legislators (including SWB) opposed it with the explanation that it apparently couldn't be formed without a pre-existing municipality, pointing to Central, Baker, and Zachary as examples. That rejection was what began the St. George incorporation effort in earnest.

None of the discussions concerning whether or not St. George can financially support itself include schools as the EBR school system is a separate entity from the City of Baton Rouge - so far it's only been about city services like police, fire, garbage, sewage, etc. The incorporation issue is going to look like a pillow fight compared to the fight if/when the debate to split out a new school district takes place.

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None of the discussions concerning whether or not St. George can financially support itself include schools as the EBR school system is a separate entity from the City of Baton Rouge - so far it's only been about city services like police, fire, garbage, sewage, etc.

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And this is where BR’s disparate impact shite needs to be thrown back in their face…

BRPD doesn’t serve unincorporated BR. EBRSO does.

BRFD doesn’t serve unincorporated BR or even some parts of BR. St George fire district and other districts cover these areas.

Garbage and sewage are considered parish level services.

BR water is a private utility and not a municipal utility.

Etc.


St George paying for BR city services directly or indirectly while not receiving them is effectively tax theft.

In this case, it is more that they want to keep money from white people without that pesky cost of providing services.


When the merger started, commerce in the unincorporated areas was significantly smaller than today, so a sweep to the general fund was much less an issue.


But with Mall of LA, all the businesses up and down Essen, Bluebonnet, Siegen, and good chunks of the eastern and southern portions of the Parish all developed like they are, that’s a lotta fricking money.


It started out as an unintended consequence of the merger, IMHO, but eventually became a major reason to keep the status quo because of how much money it meant for BR without the cost of providing services.

Tax elections specifically.

The CATS tax elections were contentious in part because they divided them by municipality to get them passed rather than make them parish wide and get voted down.


Considering that the parish subsidizes city costs like CATS, they should have a say in how much funding they got for stupid shite like GPS tracking on busses.

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think you're not taking into consideration just how broad of an area would be considered St George. Yes everything near 12 is older and going the way you described but as you move south it is booming.

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No I’m fully aware how broad “St George” is. I just didn’t take the time list every area throughout SE Baton Rouge that is quickly becoming dilapidated. I used those area as an example because in my opinion the Shenandoah area is the “heart” of the movement and the other areas are along for the ride.

In my opinion those areas are Baton Rouge and always will be whether they are in the city limits or not. As others have mentioned the city quit changing the city limit borders when it moved to a consolidated form of government.

Everyone wants to point to Central, Zachary, Baker, etc. they forget that these areas were communities for years before they incorporated. There really hasn’t been a community called St. George. It’s more of a concept than anything else.

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The action is effectively declaring the unincorporated parts of the parish as tax colonies of BR, unable to self govern because BR would suffer if that happened.

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That’s exactly what it is. The money is commingled. Someone living up in Pride or Port Hudson is subsidizing the city of Baton Rouge services like police and the BR Fire Dept. Even though they get none of those services.

The city-parish form of government needs to go away.

Edit: corrected EMS to BRFD

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could afford to move to southdowns

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Nah, nobody wants to buy grimy old houses with termite damage for $100,000 over market value, all because the owners think their location is ritzy.

EMS is a parish wide service. We are all taxed accordingly.