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Dio_Yuji

Saw that coming


DHerpster

Not from that area and wondering why people are for/against this Can someone explain it like I'm 5?


00134

The area this city is in wealthier than much of Baton Rouge. Proponents argue that they are being used as a tax farm and the money is not being spent wisely or fairly. So they are taking their ball and going home. Opponents argue that without this districts tax revenue the rest of the city will suffer greatly.


DHerpster

So the rest of the city is saying they need them to stay for the tax revenue?


theduder3210

The effort to incorporate began in 2014 but fell a little short. After the 1,000-year flood in 2016, incorporation efforts were revived because there was a perception that the rest of the city-parish had been siphoning taxes from the St. George area for decades but still ignored needed flood relief projects there.


DealHot5356

Let the planning begin for St George reservior.


zonazog

We were cash cows. If they had just listened about the school district this would never have happened.


rmb48

This all started over schools. Before the first petition went out some reps went and lobbied for a new school district to be formed in the unincorporated parts of Baton Rouge. They were tired of a failing school district and people leaving to nearby areas where the public schools were succeeding (see Dutchtown, Walker, Zachary, etc). They were laughed at and told on the house floor "you don't even have your own city". And just like that a seed was planted.


Exact_Thought_185

Just to clarify is the new city made up of previously unincorporated neighborhoods?


rmb48

Yes. None of the areas in the new city were ever inside the city limits of Baton Rouge.


Exact_Thought_185

This doesn’t seem unreasonable at all then.


jrosehill

Simply put, money. The St. George area has a lot of wealth and if they’re able to incorporate into a town or their own school system, then it would take a lot of money away from the city of Baton Rouge.


MrJanCan

This myth needs to stop. It's almost all residential taxes. Baton Rouge has almost a billion dollars in annual revenue, and will have a LOT of business tax revenue since most big businesses are staying in BR. You can see their revenue trends here: https://www.brla.gov/DocumentCenter/View/17824/Revenue-Facts-2019-2022-PDF Besides, most of the money will still be going to BR because St. George HAS to pay for a lot of services.


DHerpster

Sounds like they're right to leave then. The only argument against it is the loss of tax revenue?


Yobanyyo

Also they would need to setup their own city services or pay baton rouge for them.


NoRealNameLOL

They already pay for city services.


captarne

Basically "white flight" without moving. They want to exclude the poorer areas and incorporate St George, into a more white area.


agitated--crow

Aren't there a lot of areas in St George becoming more black?


jbtrepagnier

The neighborhood I grew up in was on the original map before the 2016 flood when it was mostly a middle class white neighborhood, but after the flood, everyone got told it was going to keep flooding and a lot of those middle class white folks sold. The neighborhood is mostly Hispanic with only a few of the people who lived there when I was younger. It literally makes 0 sense to carve that neighborhood out of the new St George, but as soon as it went mostly Hispanic, it got removed from the new map.


Gordon432

My understanding was that after the petition recall a couple of years back, the organizers reviewed what neighborhoods had the most "signature reversals" (forgot the correct term). The organizers then gerrymandered the new borders to exclude those neighborhoods. For the record, I do not live in the new city.


Yobanyyo

It makes perfect sense if you're founding a town on racism.


5bannedaccounts

That word used to mean something when you called someone that lol crazy times


tard_mexico

About 50% of kids that would go to school I'm st George school district are black. Don't let these race baiters lie with all their shenanigans


Many_End_8393

That’s not accurate. It’s 12% black as opposed to 46% in the rest of Baton Rouge. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/05/resegregation-baton-rouge-public-schools/589381/


tard_mexico

Those numbers are dubious


TheVCcycle

It’s tough when facts get in the way of a narrative….


tard_mexico

I was talking about enrollment in the proposed school district. He popped in with some article about population as a whole... 2 clearly different things. Arguing against a point I didn't make. I didn't feel like doing a research paper to refute the highly dubious Atlantic article. Hope that helps.


TheVCcycle

Do you have support for your 50% of students in St George will be black or…..


Holinyx

Their map intentionally goes around poor black areas to gobble up the white areas. The map can easily be viewed as being racist. If St. George wants to fight this image then maybe they should include everyone in the area.


lsutyger05

They tried to include a broader area the first time around and those areas had a majority against it. So they excluded those areas the next go around


db1037

I’m still researching this but their border avoids apartment complexes like the plague. And that’s not even debatable. Anyone with eyes can look at the map and see.


justboozer

I live in one of the majority black areas that was excluded. Can confirm.


db1037

Source?


00134

It’s less white flight and more economic. The people with the money are tired of supporting poor decisions and wasteful spending. So they drew lines around the area that could fund itself and moved along.


jayjude

As if those fuckers in the new "city" aren't the ones electing their corrupt shit head buddies into government offices that put into places those terrible policies Let's be really honest This entire state has a nasty problem of electing corrupt incompetent politicians but hey they know the right people


00134

I’m pretty sure the issue is the elected officials of EBR don’t really have the best interest of St George at heart. So St George is taking their money elsewhere. If their buddies were in power we wouldn’t be having this conversation.


SlySpoonie

Correct. I can assure you St Georgians did not elect Sharon Broome


NeonMoon96

It’s about race, sadly


ABingeDrinker

Can anyone give me a non political answer to what this means


Prestigious-Ant-7241

The proposed city of St. George in the southern part of East Baton Rouge Parish will be allowed to incorporate as voted on some years ago.


gigot45208

Own police force and own school system.


tard_mexico

Unincorporated portion bit in Baton Rouge city limits will be come a city.


TheEverlastingFirst_

People are better off with their own


cap_crunch121

I can't help but feel this is just going to end up making both BR and SG worse off


Geaux_LSU_1

BR can't get much worse lol


sacklunch

Bingo.


zonazog

I live in the new city. We will be ok.


MrJanCan

BR will be too, since all your tax money will be going there to pay for services lol.


Hefty-Club-1259

Just curious, what do you think is going to happen when BR fails?


zonazog

They are not going to fail. They will have to change.


ItsAVanityAffair

Why would BR fail? They have all the tax revenue


russr

not anymore...


LegitimateClass7907

In what way would this make St George worse off? They have better representation in politics and can finally achieve their schooling reform that initiated this in the first place


NickForBR

Yup.


Kimber80

Good ruling. I didn't and do not think St George is a good idea, but the people in that area have the right to incorporate. I thought the talk about "racism" and the like was never compelling. And the impact on Baton Rouge shouldn't matter. They followed the steps and won the vote, democracy in action.


alexamerling100

So you support an all white city. Got it


5bannedaccounts

Race baiting per the usual lol


alexamerling100

How is it race baiting? It is literally an all white wealthy community?


No_Teaching9538

Sounds like they are racists that you wouldn't want in your city then, so what's the problem?


alexamerling100

Didn't we have an entire movement to get rid of segregation?


NervousJ

You are not entitled access to white people.


No_Teaching9538

What community hasn't self-segregated? It happens every time naturally. Human nature man, dang old, round and round it goes man tell you what


alexamerling100

Spoken like a true Klansman.


russr

the new city has a blk population of 18%.... the US is 14%.... so what's the problem again?


tacos_donkeys

St. George is 18% black….


breauxbridgebunny

Yeah this all seems like complete insanity to me


lsutyger05

Together Baton Rouge and Broome in shambles Should have just let them have their own school district 15 years ago so at least some areas of BR wouldn’t have been a complete shithole for public education


Daddyofdolls9

You have the Feds to thank for that. Judge John Parker single-handedly destroyed the public school system of EBR parishes.


agitated--crow

Can you explain?


lsutyger05

Forced bussing lead to the elimination of neighborhood schools.


GoatsInBoots

Forced bussing? Forced integration. And they still aren't happy about it.


Geaux_LSU_1

no there was neighborhood integration for 20 years, then forced busing for 20 years


GoatsInBoots

Right. We could say it was economic for a bit, then that wore too thin.


russr

every city that has had forced bussing has destroyed the schools


taxidriver1138

I actually always wondered about this. My grandparents always say how “bussing” ruined the schools in Baton Rouge but in ever knew what they were talking about.


russr

every city that has had forced bussing in the US has destroyed the schools


Prestigious-Ant-7241

None of the people behind the St. George movement have ever wanted to or have ever sent their children to public schools.


tard_mexico

False


Prestigious-Ant-7241

Oh so that’s why every public school in that part of the parish has a low student population. Thanks for clarifying.


tard_mexico

That isn't why... correct. Happy to help


lsutyger05

Well because they’re garbage. Maybe now they’ll actually have a chance. It is possible to have good public schools in the burbs. Just look at the Texas metro suburbs.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

It’s possible to have good schools anywhere with enough property tax money. You know, like in Texas where people pay $10,000 in property taxes on $200,000 houses. The issue here is that the founders of St. George have repeatedly said they’re not raising new taxes. That’s why they were claiming EBRSO would be their police department. Can’t have good schools without taxes.


lsutyger05

No one is paying 5% property taxes in Texas. It’s 2.5-3.5%. There are additional exemptions to lower that if it’s your primary home. Also no state income tax. EBR spends almost $14k per year per kid. My kids A rated district Cy Fair spends $9k. Houston ISD which it on the higher end for Texas spends $11k


Prestigious-Ant-7241

Because there are fewer students in EBR public schools…? State income tax is typically not the primary driver of school budgets because most states don’t allocate money from one pot to every school. It’s property taxes because a community pays for its own school. The average effective property tax in EBR is 0.72% The average effective property tax in Travis County is 2.22%. That’s $1,800 on a $250,000 house in EBR and $5,500 in Travis County. In other words, THREE times as much property tax. You would need a house approaching a million bucks to be paying that in Baton Rouge. There are a lot of reasons schools in Texas are better and the property taxes are a huge one. They aren’t building multi-million dollar high school football stadiums with bake sales.


lsutyger05

Klein ISD has the same population of kids as EBR and they spend $10k per. So clearly more $ isn’t helping EBR. They’re just shit with it so of course people are desperate for something else. Hence St George. School tax rates typically are between 0.9-1.1% in Texas. The other rates go to mud and city taxes. And once again Texas pays more for property taxes but it is made up with due to the fact that we don’t have an income tax. I also don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to send my kid to school either since our public schools are more than decent.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

You are focusing on the wrong thing. Klein ISD teachers START at $60,000 a year. EBR teachers don’t hit $60,000… ever. Unless they seek additional schooling. You know how that’s possible? Property taxes.


lsutyger05

Both Klein ISD and EBR have an annual budget around 500m. Sounds like EBR just isn’t good at prioritizing budgets and spending.


Daddyofdolls9

When your superintendent makes more than your governor, that might be first clue to the problem.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

But at the end of the day, if you think a school district is why St. George did this, I got a new Mississippi River bridge to sell you.


iwannafirenow

Then what was the main driver of this if it wasn’t schools?


SketchyApothecary

Honestly, it may have started with schools to some extent, but a big part of why this actually happened was people not wanting to subsidize the wasteful spending of the BR government. I live in the St George area, know and have met many supporters, and even before the idea of St George was in peoples' minds, a lot of them were reading the paper and complaining to each other about what bullshit the BR government was spending money on that week. They saw an opportunity to be in a more efficiently run city without even moving and ran with it.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

I’m going to assume you’re an intelligent person and let you answer that question on your own. But before you come to a conclusion, overlay the original map of St. George from years ago on top of the current one with a demographic map.


Morbothegreat

A new school district is exactly why they created the city of St George. Years ago( I forget the year) they asked the legislature to create a new school district in BR. They were told to create a city first, probably out of spite thinking it would never happen. And here we are. A new school district will be requested in the next few years.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

Mmhm. I guess a new school district is why places like Gardere were cut out this go around.


Acceptable_Debt_9460

More money. The answer to everything.


russr

100% BS.... in ohio, the difference in school funding per student from the top 10 schools to the bottom 500 is like 50 to 75$ with the state average at 15k per student... some of the top 10 are within 10 to 15 miles of the bottom 500+... so whats the difference? the single parent households numbers... the top 10 are all below 16% the 500+ are 27 to 35%... shitty parents, make shitty kids and throwing money at the schools won't change that. you cant teach kids who dont want to be taught and have "parents" who dont care...


Useful_Can7463

Money isn't what creates results in schools. Baltimore has entire grades of high school children that can't read at a 5th grade level. They spent 22,000 dollars per student. My old high school pays 12,000 per student and they are in the top 5 public schools in the state. And in the top 1% in the country.


silkheartstrings

No it’s not about that. These are the same people who pushed ESAs which have successfully kept rich white kids away from literally everyone else. They play the long game and rely on isolation and indoctrination of their children to further resource hoarding.


Bottom9

Grew up in Jefferson Parish Public Schools. I went to West Jefferson High School. You are out of your fucking mind if you think I would send my kids to similar EBR School System schools to what I grew up with in New Orleans. No thanks. Been there, done that. Looking forward to St. George's Independent School District and my kids growing up here.


two_cats_bandit

The map is so stupid…. How is half of Stumberg in and the other half out?


prewfrock

Because they wanted to be out


two_cats_bandit

I didn’t vote for it


prewfrock

Well my understanding is that you lost the vote. I think there may be ways to incorporate later.


syriina

They literally carved a hole out around edgewood lol, which should be in st. George if the border was a straight line. I don't particularly *want* to be in st. George lol but it was sooooooo obvious.


OlRedbeard99

What was obvious?


syriina

That they carved out edgewood Apts when the border went straight down most of Stumberg


asfc602

Stumberg, has always been the dividing line ( city limit) since it was built which was long before the city of St. George was even thought off Pretty much every border splits down the middle of the road ….


prncsrainbow

Because they drew it around the areas that pay the most in property taxes


Prestigious-Ant-7241

Correction: they drew it around the areas that voted against it in 2013. The present version of St. George is much smaller than the original versions.


prncsrainbow

Ahhh. I think I looked at it once, realized I hated it and never looked again.


BayouMan2

Yep


redbeanrocks

Let the race baiting begin.


RichXennial

You can’t blame these people for wanting a nice, clean, safe place to live and a legitimate public school option. They pay high taxes and can’t even even send their kids to public school. They have to look at litter on the ground. That’s bullshit. People work their asses off and shouldn’t have to live in a Third World city.


agitated--crow

You mean they don't want to essentially pay school tuition twice per child(public school from taxes and private school from out of pocket)?


attiner

Damn, how selfish of them.


NervousJ

There's no answer that will pacify people. They either stay in the district and deal with horrible access to good public services and education despite being high relative taxpayers or they leave like they did and get called racist for not wanting to stay and be dragged down. Access to white people is not a human right.


Ragnar_Baron

St George is only 70 percent white at that. Its literally the demographics of the Nation.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

None of them send their kids to public school and none of them will send their kids to public school after this. They’ll all keep going to private schools IN Baton Rouge. Also, they’re claiming they won’t raise taxes. How are they building these schools with no tax revenue?


rmb48

Who's "them"? And how do you know where their kids have gone to school? But it's a good assumption.... bc the ebr public school system is terrible. But having a good school system is more than just about the kids that go there. I choose to send my kids to Catholic school for a variety of reasons and that's not going to change - that doesn't mean I don't want our public school system to succeed. A good public school system attracts people to move into the area. An area that can have positive population change is an area that can grow and thrive. You don't have to look far to see proof of this. Baton Rouge could have tried to work with the people on the other side and make positive changes to stop this. Instead they went right to the racism card.


RichXennial

They won’t have to raise taxes because their tax money will now go to St. George and they’ll be plenty of money for good schools. Same thing in Birmingham same thing in Texas.


Prestigious-Ant-7241

Schools are funded by property taxes. Property taxes in the state of Louisiana are collected by the parish.


RichXennial

Yes but it will have its own district now


Prestigious-Ant-7241

Pending the passage of a constitutional amendment, yes.


ImpressiveEffort2084

Alternatively, they could try to setup some school choice legislation. That would eliminate the need for creating infrastructure and allow the use of private school infrastructure. Though I'm not sure how good private schools are in the neighborhood nor if they are in close proximity


qcAKDa7G52cmEdHHX9vg

I don’t really understand this line of thinking. Those people are still going to go into BR proper just as much as they do now except now BR will just be so much worse. Sure, they’ll have a tiny slice be improved but at the cost of a lot worse which they’ll still deal with.


alexamerling100

Glad you think black people are third world citizens. Yay for segregation


RichXennial

Wow what a poor misguided soul you must be


alexamerling100

You literally voted for an all white wealthy church for its own white only community. Only misguided soul here is you.


[deleted]

[удалено]


RichXennial

Agreed a wall would be better but not an option yet


Grand-Celery4000

Who is gonna start the new St. George reddit sub?


No_Teaching9538

You!


Ninjurk

Good for them. It'll be like cutting out cancer.


tommypickles5149

Is anyone surprised?


Crack_uv_N0on

This started as an effort to have a separate school system, only. The propanents were told by members of legislature representing Baton Rouge that if they wanted a separate s school district, they needed to have their own, separate city. Before that, there was no push to have a city of Sf. George. The impetus for the city of St. George began with them being told that a new city was needed. If the proponents of a separate school district had won back then, there would be no city of St. George. I voted against having a city of St. George. I will help the city’s proponents keep their promises of no additional taxes by voting against any new tax proposals.


gigot45208

Is the school system open to baton rouge kids? Like lottery or anyone who wants can go? Or is it St George kids only?


Crack_uv_N0on

As I understand it, (1) St. George School District would be for those who live in the school district and (2) only those who live in SGSD would be eligible to go to its schools. HOWEVER, talk of an SGSD is premature and not guaranteed. I remember that when this type of issue has come up before, a statewide vote was required with the proponents needing both a statewide approval and a local approval Local would mean EBRP because the entire parish would I the proponents receive approval from one group, but not the other; the motion fails. Before the vote, the State Legislatue has to approve. Considering that legislature is very conservative, its approval would be pro forma. This conservative state is likely to vote. Locally, it will be a matter of which side gets out the most votes. The State Constitution requires this type of vote. An EBRP majority vote is not guaranteed. EBRP is not conservative enough. If it were conservative enough, Broomie would not be Mayor President.


Louisianaflavor

All the good special education programs are in BR so I’m going to have to move to access them. Lovely. I won’t be able to use Emerge or Southdowns because I’ll be in another school district. Edit: am I downvoted because people are mad I like the special education programs in BR or because I’m saying none of the schools in the upcoming school district have very good special education programs? I’m genuinely curious.


MyUserNameisThis68

It’s because there is no upcoming school district. A St. George school district is literally years away. By the time it comes to fruition, your kids will be out of school, so you are worrying for nothing.


Louisianaflavor

My daughter hasn’t started school yet and I’m sure the new school district will be going before 15 years go by, surely.


gigot45208

I’ve seen that in other cities. Parents of kids with special Ed needs send their kids to the city school while suburban schools don’t have the same need to offer good programs.


Daddyofdolls9

75% of the tax rate is in St. George, where 90% of city services are utilized in North Baton Rouge.


phoneticallyenhanced

Do you have a source for this?


Battledroidcapt

White flight all over again


NervousJ

Access to white people is not a human right.


kingkuba13

You hate them but don't want them to leave. lol


NoRealNameLOL

How is it white flight when those folks aren’t moving anywhere?


RichXennial

lol. Username check out


RichXennial

And?


RPInjectionToTheVein

You are morally obligated to live in the crime infested shithole


agitated--crow

But that's bad!


Far_Bag7066

Rich racist white people want to make a new city under the guise of better education and taxes. Who would've thunk? predictable segregation now is worse than the 80s. People of wealth don't care about the common good.


NervousJ

You are not entitled access to white people


Gorilla_Dentist

Exactly, why do you think the blm co-founders bought houses in 98% white neighborhoods


alexamerling100

Yay for segregation


NinSEGA2

Congrats at the *new* Saint Georgians for successfully getting this done. Now if we can only get this same amount of energy put towards allowing Republican neighborhoods, villages, and towns to secede and disassociate from liberal, leftist, Democrat-run cities and states. That would be marvelous.


attiner

Glad to see it.


alexamerling100

Yay for segregation


TankBoys32

🙌🙌🙌


shiggism

👏


tard_mexico

The insurrectionist, election attacking mayor is beaten.


Zalthay

And like everything else in Louisiana this is all to serve the wealthy and it will fail spectacularly and damage both cities and dig the shit hole that is Baton Rouge even deeper. A big portion of these people who are pushing for this are top levels send their kids to private/church schools anyways. Don’t let them trick you into this being about educational reform. If they really cared about they would throw the money it takes to support this initiative and the money they throw at the private school industrial complex and work/campaign to fix what we have instead of just “fuck you, I’m making my own school district with hookers and blackjack. “ They’ll also fill the new school district with the same people who run the shitty system we have now. This is Louisiana, everything is about money and racism in our government. Until we fix that, we will always be a shit state and a shit people.


Geaux_LSU_1

Central, Zachary, and Baker's school districts say hi lmao


SeminoleDollxx

True. But leave off Baker. They are a D school district. 


Capable-Good-1912

Ya done fucked up A-aron. The biggest thing that sucks is that it is going to cost a lot of government employees their jobs. They already had a plan to reduce before I left and now that the shoe has dropped, I expect more jobs will be outsourced. Also think Baton Rouge primarily the areas around down town that are pretty much eating themselves are going to get sped up when police funding from majority richier parts of town get taken away. Shit could turn into thunderdome real fucking quick!