Louisiana Supreme Court rules in favor of new City of St. George, reversing lower courts

Update: A new City of St. George: How a major Louisiana Supreme Court ruling could change Baton Rouge

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of the controversial proposed City of St. George, saying organizers followed the proper steps for incorporation, overturning the rulings of lower courts.

The state's highest court ruled that St. George's plan for incorporation was reasonable and would be able to provide its residents with proper public services. Court justices ruled in favor of the new city four to three, with Chief Justice John Weimer, Justice Scott Crichton and Justice Piper Griffin dissenting.

Baton Rouge leaders took St. George organizers to court in 2019 over the proposed city, 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 in their petition — and had argued for years leading up to the election — that the new city would financially cripple Baton Rouge’s city-parish services and force layoffs by taking away an estimated $48.3 million in annual tax revenue. They also argued that St. George’s proposed budget was inaccurate and that it’d actually operate with a deficit.

Twice the courts have sided with Baton Rouge and 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 on the election ballot.

The fight for St. George preceded the 2019 election by a decade — it originally started out as a movement to create a separate, independent school district before evolving over the course of several years into a full campaign to create a new city.

Organizers for St. George, who reside in the predominantly White and affluent Southeast corner of the parish, said for years that the city-parish government and school system were poorly run and that they wanted more localized control of tax dollars.

The proposed city of St. George comprised 68,000 residents at the time of its election, of which about 12% are Black. By contrast, East Baton Rouge Parish is about 47% Black, according to the United States Census.

Opponents have argued that the St. George movement is inherently racist as it creates legal lines of segregation.

The movement grew in 2015 with the first petition drive to get on an election ballot, though that effort fell short by 71 signatures. It went silent for two years after, until another petition effort began in 2018 with redrawn city boundaries, this time proving successful for St. George proponents and getting the proposed city onto the 2019 election ballot.

The proposed city garnered national attention over its 14-year lifespan, including a PBS “Frontline” special in 2014 and spotlights in national publications like the New York Times, Bloomberg and The Atlantic.

This is a developing story.