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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - St. George is moving closer and closer to looking more like a big city as it approved its first election ever.

WAFB has previously reported on the city’s effort to get the 2% sales tax transferred from East Baton Rouge Parish. That moved forward during a meeting on July 8, where officials approved authorization for the tax to be on the ballot. Interim Mayor, Dustin Yates, says history was made during Monday’s meeting.

“Today really was kind of historic because it’s the first election that St. George has ever called for,” Yates says.

The tax transfer will go on the ballot for an election on December 7th. Yates says this was the earliest election they could hold.

“It’s not a new tax, it’s simply a transference of that two cents going into the parish coffers going back into the St. George,” Yates said. “It’s the same exact tax that Central collects, that Zachary collects, that the city of Baton Rouge collects, and now, the city of St. George will collect it.”

In addition to the sales tax discussion, the group also discussed the next steps in drawing the city’s new districts. The decision to pick a demographer was deferred in Monday’s meeting because not all proposals were in on time. Yates says they should move forward with those discussions in two weeks.

“They’ll come up with recommendations on how the council district lines can be drawn, to make sure that’s equitable, make sure everybody feels like they have a voice in the new city and that everybody’s invested, and then the council will vote on it,” Yates says.

Yates estimates anywhere between 2-9 months before they have a map with clear districts.

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