A Louisiana Supreme Court ruling will allow residents to secede from Baton Rouge and create a new town called St. George.

The state Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s decision and ruled 4-3 to allow the incorporation of St. George, which will form in southeast Baton Rouge.

Attorney Andrew Murrell, one of the leaders of the St. George movement, issued a statement following the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision.

“This is the culmination of citizens exercising their constitutional rights. We voted and we won,” Murrell said.

“Whether you are for or you are against St. George, now is your opportunity, a historic opportunity, to create a city from the beginning, from the ground up. It’s your ideas, it’s your policies, it’s your way of life and now you can come together and put those out there and have someone accountable to you,” he added.

“Five years ago, St. George voted to incorporate. Today, Louisiana’s Supreme Court stood up for the people’s right to have a greater say about their community and local representation,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) commented.

St. George will have reportedly have a population of approximately 100,000, making it one of the state’s largest cities.

From the Associated Press:

Baton Rouge leaders took St. George organizers to court in 2019, just two weeks after 54% of voters living within the proposed city’s limits voted “yes” on the incorporation in a November election. Baton Rouge leaders argued that the new city would financially cripple city-parish services and force layoffs by stripping an estimated $48.3 million in annual tax revenue. They also argued that St. George’s proposed budget would operate with a deficit.

Twice the courts shot down the proposed city, once in 2022 when a district judge ruled that St. George couldn’t operate with a balanced budget and was “unreasonable,” and again last year when the First Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that St. George organizers hadn’t followed state law for getting the issue on the election ballot.

The fight for St. George originally started as a movement to create a separate, independent school district before evolving into a full campaign to create a new city.

Few new details were provided beyond what organizers had laid out before the 2019 vote, the newspaper reported. Organizers did say they were considering a push to force East Baton Rouge Parish to turn over tax money from the past five years, while incorporation was delayed due to legal fight.

“Well, I’ll tell you, everything’s on the table,” Murrell said. “That’s the easiest answer I can give you without going into further details.”

St. George organizers said the city-parish government and school system were poorly run, and they wanted more localized control of tax dollars.

The New York Post reports:

During a news conference Monday at the St. George Fire Department headquarters, Murrell promised the residents that the new city’s officials will work to finally set up a new school district as he acknowledged the challenges to come.

“Number one, we created a city. We have not created a school district,” Murrell said. “They are two distinct separate animals. They have separate budgets, separate leadership structures.

“But I would be dishonest if I didn’t tell you what’s next on the agenda would be the creation of the St. George school district, which is long overdue in a parish that is near dead last in a state that is near dead last in the country in education,” he added.

Before the new government can get started, however, Gov. Jeff Landry must appoint the city’s first mayor and city council members.

Residents will vote for their new leaders in the next election cycle, according to the city’s website.

 

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