After months of tension with Sharon Weston Broome’s administration over how much tax money East Baton Rouge Parish owes St. George as the new city begins providing services, St. George leaders said they are confident they will reach an intergovernmental agreement with Mayor-President-elect Sid Edwards.
“It can’t be worse,” St. George Transition District Chair Andrew Murrell said. “It can only be better."
The parties have previously, and bitterly, disagreed on how much tax money East Baton Rouge will keep and how much will be allocated to St. George. Broome’s administration has argued that St. George’s proposals for a greater share of the tax revenue did not account for certain services provided by the parish, such as juvenile services and prison medical services.
But Saturday’s elections signified movement in the eyes of many St. George leaders.
In addition to Edwards unseating incumbent Broome, residents of the new city voted to approve a transfer of a 2% sales tax that is collected within St. George boundaries to the city — revenue totaling around $50 million annually that up until now has been owned and collected by East Baton Rouge Parish.
“We had a very, very great weekend this past weekend,” St. George Mayor Dustin Yates said at a City Council meeting on Tuesday. “It was really the culmination of so many years of work put in by so many people.”
Murrell and Yates said they expect discussions with Edwards to begin in the new year. Yates is looking forward to working with an administration that “cooperates” with its parish residents, he said.
“We will get together sooner or later, and we’ll figure it out,” Yates said. “I think he’s probably pretty motivated to get St. George off of his plate and let us flourish and allow him to do everything he needs to do with the rest of the parish.”