It’s been fascinating to witness so many people in East Baton Rouge Parish step out of the shadows and profess their love for the ideal known as “the greater good” in the past few weeks, writes Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball in his new column, written prior to Saturday’s election.
“The greater good,” was the chorus of Baton Rougeans who opposed some 86,000 unincorporated residents of the parish becoming some 86,000 incorporated residents of the parish. This choir of the better together would be fine if those residents were choosing to incorporate as part of the city of Baton Rouge; but doing so as the city of St. George is a crime against all things good government.
In the business community, many now worry that the loss of St. George property tax dollars will have a devastating impact on the parish public school system, but they weren’t worried about that same impact when it comes to ITEP.
In fact, BRAC, ExxonMobil and pretty much every business group under the Louisiana sun went into a conniption earlier this year when the school board had the audacity to reject two ITEP proposals from ExxonMobil. So egregious was this sin that Mayor Sharon Weston Broome herself had to call a press conference to proclaim her love for all things ExxonMobil.
How exactly is that for the greater good? Read Ball’s full column, which looks further at some of the hypocrisy amidst the debate about St. George and Baton Rouge’s sudden love affair with the greater good. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
