The Louisiana Supreme Court ended a more than decade-long fight in its 4–3 ruling Friday that wealthy white residents of Baton Rouge could split off and form their own city with its own leadership and schools.
The new city will be called St. George. It will cover 60 square miles in the southeast area of the East Baton Rouge Parish and have 86,000 residents.
Supporters of the split want less crime and better schools, and say the city of Baton Rouge is poorly run.
Detractors of the plan say that it will siphon off $48 million, a significant part of the tax base of the city, and leave its poorest residents even poorer.
Because the rest of the city is majority black, some of its leaders have accused those who favor secession of racism.
Norman Browning, the leader of the campaign, told The New York Times after the ruling, “I look forward to our ability to build an efficient, productive, and vibrant city.”
The campaign started 15 years ago when residents wanted to start their own school district. At the time, some students were being bused across town in an effort for schools to be racially integrated rather than segregated.
The movement grew from just a separate school district to a separate city in 2015. The first time it came to a vote, the proposal didn’t get enough votes, but in 2019 it passed with 54 percent of residents voting for secession.
Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole both sued St. George after the vote to prevent them from seceeding.
Among their claims was that St. George’s proposed budget would not enable them to be self-sufficient.
Lower court arguments agreed, but the state supreme court overruled them, saying they did have the finances to fund public services.
Resident Sarah Stelly wrote on Facebook of the move, “St. George reeks of class division, it’s quickly becoming the worst type of bigotry.”
Paul Brady chimed in, “The segregationist won. I’m no longer a citizen of Baton Rouge. I now live in the white enclave of St. George.”
M.E. Cormier, who leads an anti-St. George campaign, told The New York Times, “There is no basis in fact that the existence of St. George is positive or will bring positivity or have a positive impact on any areas of the cities or parish.”
“The detanglement, logistically speaking, is going to be an absolute nightmare,” she added.
Andrew Murrell, another leader of the secessionist movement, disagreed.
“This is the culmination of citizens exercising their constitutional rights,” he said after the vote. “Now we begin the process of delivering on our promises of a better city. We welcome both our friends and foes to the table to create St. George.”
Resident Tracy McCord said she was “extremely happy to hear that this was going to actually happen after all this time.”
“There’s too much bussing going on. People have to pay for private school because of the bus thing, having to send their kids across town, she said. “So, in my opinion, we need a new school district out here and we had to have a city before we could do that.”
The budget shortfall is expected to be $53 million for Baton Rouge under the plan. But the wealthier residents are tired of their tax dollars being spent for little or no return in terms of schools and safety of the residents.
St. George would have a projected annual income of $30,000 more than Baton Rouge now has, while the unemployment rate would be half of what it is now.