
Election Brings New Era for St. George With Tax Passage, Friend in BR City Hall
Make no mistake. Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, was a significant day in the history of the City of St. George and East Baton Rouge Parish.
Like a massive tsunami, voters in St. George and across the parish crashed through strongholds and flattened the political power structure of City-Parish government.
The parish will likely never be the same again.
In a single day, by an 80 percent margin, voters in St. George funded the state’s newest city, 5th largest in the state, an economic powerhouse, and a conservative bastion.
At the same time, voters across the parish elected Coach Sid Edwards as Mayor-President, a friend
of St. George, to replace St. George’s No. 1 opponent, Sharon Weston Broome. As a State Senator and for the past eight years as Mayor-President, Broome has opposed St. George at every turn. She fought creating a new school district for Southeast Baton Rouge and campaigned against incorporation of St. George.
Once the voters of St. George approved creation of the City of St. George, Broome filed suit to block incorporation, succeeding in doing so for five years. Finally, even after the Louisiana Supreme Court approved the incorporation, Broome did her best to stop St. George from getting its tax money.
In the end, the voters of St. George ended the political fortunes of Mayor-President Broome, giving her opponent a 15,684-vote majority, far more than his parishwide margin of victory of 8,721.
St. George Mayor Dustin Yates said, “The tax election was a wonderful victory. People came out and entrusted us with their tax dollars. When 80 percent of the peo
ple agree, it’s important. What this really means is that no matter what deal St. George is able to negotiate with the Mayor-President, St. George will control its own destiny by April 1, when tax revenues begin to flow.”
“Passage of the tax, which transfers the 2 percent sales tax from the parish to the City of St. George means we can engage in planning and take steps to get the city going,” he said.
Negotiations with Mayor-President-elect Sid Edwards will center around how much of sales tax collections during the transition period will go to the City-Parish and how much to the City of St. George.
The new city sales tax should amount to about $5 million a month. However, while the City-Parish is continuing to provide services within the City of St. George, it will need to be compensated for the work that it does.
Saturday’s election results leave St. George in a much stronger position.
Not only does St. George have a guaranteed source of revenue but it now has a partner in the Mayor-President’s office who will at least be a friend.
Officials in St. George certainly understand that there will be limits to what Coach Sid can do because of legal restraints and the reality of the City-Parish government losing $40 to $50 million a year.
Nevertheless, Mayor Yates feels St. George is in a favorable position to launch the new city.
“The new Mayor-President will be good for St. George and good for the parish,” he said.
Mayor Yates said that the mayors of the five municipalities in the parish — Baker, Baton Rouge, Central, St. George, and Zachary should be working closely together.
“We should meet at least monthly, first to get to know one another and develop camaraderie and a team spirit,” he said. “And now we have a coach!”
He said the mayors have only met once before.
He said he’d like to see each city host a Mayor’s roundtable once a month and rotate from city to city.
One of Yates’ priorities is to have an assessment done of St. George’s road and drainage needs. He also wants to see an assessment of hazards that exist in the city.
He said federal funds are available to assist in this process.
Another top priority is issuing an RFP for city services, similar to what exists in the City of Central, which is Louisiana’s only privatized city.
In Central, almost all city services are provided by a private contractor, IBTS. It does not provide police or fire protection but does provide almost everything else under contract with the city.
As a result, the City of Central has only a handful of city employees and very few legacy costs. Based on current employment, very few people are accruing retirement benefits in the City of Central.
As far as what services the City-Parish government will continue to provide in St. George, Yates said these include Animal Control, traffic light synchronization, and very little else.
All in all, Saturday’s vote of the people was a major victory for St. George and promises great things for the future, Mayor Yates said.
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