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Baton Rouge mayoral candidates discuss new City of St. George, budget plans

Top mayoral candidate prepare for televised debate at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.
Aidan McCahill
/
WRKF
Top mayoral candidate prepare for televised debate at Baton Rouge Magnet High School.

With just 21 days left until Election Day, the race for East Baton Rouge's mayor-president is shaping up to be more competitive. Fundraising has already surpassed previous races, with Democratic challenger Ted James raising over $1 million. Behind James is incumbent Sharon Weston-Broome who has $611,835 in campaign contributions, also outpacing previous cycles.

Over the past few months, each candidate has laid out their visions for the parish's future. James, Republicans Sid Edwards and Nathaniel Hearn and Independent Steve Meyers all made crime and economic growth top priorities.

The new City of St. George may temper their visions with a sobering reality. Its incorporation means the parish will lose sales tax revenue that contributes to its general fund. Fourteen agencies, including police and fire departments, maintenance, and development have been asked to prepare for 10% to 20% budget cuts, as reported by the Advocate.

“Our first priority will be to retain and maintain our city-parish employees and to continue the delivery of services to everyone in the city and parish,” Broome said at last Thursday’s debate. Broome also said she plans to keep a balanced budget without raising taxes

“We’ve always had a balanced budget and we’ll have one for 2025,” she said during Monday’s press club meeting. “We still–with St. George–have a AAA bond rating.”

St. George, once a wealthy suburb of the parish, has been a defining issue during Broome’s two terms as mayor. After nearly a decade of campaigning, St. George residents voted to incorporate their city in 2019. Broome's office subsequently sued organizers, arguing the new city would cripple East Baton Rouge financially, while also contending St. George would not be able operate on a balanced budget. As legal battles persisted, the incorporation efforts were halted until 2024 when the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the proposed city.

As the new city begins to establish its own services, the two sides are still negotiating an intergovernmental agreement, squabbling over how much money the parish should send over to initiate them. St. George argues its owed tax revenue going back to 2019, when residents voted to incorporate the city. Broome’s administration says it's unreasonable to expect money from a time when the parish provided most services.

If elected, James said he would look to explore every possible option before raising taxes.

“We’re going to audit every single contract…every single department across the board,” he said Monday.

James said he will look at making cuts to programs that have a number of “funded vacancies,” where budgeted positions go unfilled, and duplicate services are provided by multiple entities.

He also plans to pull more resources from state and federal government, something he maintains other municipalities have done a better job with.

At the debate Thursday, Sid Edwards, the leading Republican candidate said he wouldn’t raise taxes, but did not specify plans for a tighter budget. Meanwhile, Republican Nathaniel Hearn and Independent Steve Meyers, both polling below 4% said they would employ zero-based budgeting, a technique that involves justifying each expense for a new fiscal year starting from zero, as opposed to adjusting from a previous budget.

“The parks and the libraries are separate taxing entities, they seem to be doing a decent job with their money,” said Meyers. “I'm not saying we take it away, but I’m saying we don’t necessarily keep adding on to it.”

At Monday’s press club meeting, James, Meyers and Hearn all agreed with Broome that the parish should not owe St. George back taxes dating back to 2019. Edwards was absent from the discussion.

Broome said she expects an agreement with St. George by Election Day. Two more debates will be held before then: the Together Baton Rouge Unity Forum on Oct. 22, and another on Oct. 28 jointly held by LSU, Southern University and the NAACP. If no candidates receive more than 50% of the vote, more debates will be held before another runoff election.

Aidan McCahill is general assignment reporter for WRKF and WWNO. He covers a wide range of stories in South Louisiana, often finding himself down bizarre rabbit holes.

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