Wealthy white Louisiana residents win right to form their own city and split from poorer black neighborhoods in landmark court ruling after a 10-year battle

Wealthy white residents of Baton Rouge have won a decade-long lawsuit to secede from poorer neighborhoods and form their own city with plans for better schools and less crime.

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Friday that the new city of St. George could move forward with incorporation and secede from the rest of Baton Rouge.

St George will have a population of 86,000 spread over a 60-square-mile area in southeastern East Baton Rouge Parish, and will have its own mayor and city council.

Supporters of the new city say the existing city-parish government is poorly governed, with high crime rates and poor schools.

Opponents say the move is “racist” and will create a “white enclave” because it separates an affluent part of the city from the predominantly black city and school district.

St George (right) becomes a separate city next to Baton Rouge

Campaign manager Norman Browning (pictured with his family) told The New York Times: “I look forward to our ability to build an efficient, productive and vibrant city.”

Leader of an anti-St. George campaign group, ME Cormier, 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 part of the city. or the parish.’

Planning for St. George began nearly 15 years ago when residents decided they would like to start their own school district.

Their plans then became more ambitious and in 2015 they came up with a proposal to create their own city.

The proposal did not receive enough votes and the movement stalled until 2019, when a second vote to incorporate St. George passed, with 54 percent of residents voting in favor of separation.

A lengthy lawsuit ensued, with Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole suing St. George’s organizers shortly after the election.

They argued that St. George would siphon more than $48 million in tax revenue annually from the city-parish government, with serious consequences for local services and staff.

They claimed that the loss of revenue would mean that services would have to be cut and employees would have to be laid off, and that St. George’s proposed internal budget was inaccurate and that they would not be able to be self-sufficient.

Lower courts in Louisiana supported Baton Rouge’s arguments and shot down the proposed new city.

But now the state Supreme Court has rejected their decisions, saying that the internal budget is balanced and will be able to provide public services, meaning Saint George can be included.

Critics of the St. George proposal argue that it would create a poor, black and urban Baton Rouge and a rich, white and suburban St. George.

On Facebook, resident Sarah Stelly wrote: “St. George smacks of class division, it is quickly becoming the new worst form of bigotry.”

Another resident, Paul Brady, wrote, “The segregationist has won. I am no longer a citizen of Baton Rouge. I now live in the white enclave of St George.’

Leader of an anti-St. George campaign group, ME Cormier, 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 part of the city. or the parish.

‘The disentanglement will be an absolute nightmare logistically.’

But St George Project leader Andrew Murrell told the newspaper: “This is the culmination of citizens exercising their constitutional rights.

“Now we begin the process of delivering on our promises of a better city.”

Fellow campaign manager Norman Browning told The Times, “I look forward to our ability to build an efficient, productive and vibrant city while contributing to a thriving East Baton Rouge Parish.”

After Hurricane Katrina, the city of Baton Rouge accepted more than 200,000 displaced New Orleans residents, the majority of whom were black and settled in the northern, urban parts of the city.

The split campaign emerged from the ashes of a failed campaign to create a new school district by the wealthy, predominantly white residents of south Baton Rouge.

A 2014 study by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber found that the effects of partition would be economically devastating for the rest of Baton Rouge, immediately creating a $53 million budget deficit.

The survey also raised concerns about whether remaining parts of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, could support public services despite the loss of tax revenue.

As the tables below show, the projected numbers for St. George would create a city with a median income $30,000 higher than current Baton Rouge, while cutting the unemployment rate in half.

According to figures from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, the new city would have a predominantly white population, unlike Baton Rouge, which has a black majority, and the number of people receiving food stamps would also be more than halved.