Editor and Publisher

GARYVILLE – Garyville voters, in overwhelming fashion, turned thumbs down on Saturday to a proposal that could have made the small St. John Parish town the first municipality the parish has ever known.

After a long and intense campaign to get Garyville approved as a town, voters did not even give the measure a chance with final numbers showing 67 percent of the electorate saying “No” during the Saturday vote. Final, unofficial numbers from the St. John Parish clerk of court, showed 833 voters saying “No,” with 398 voters backing the measure.

Even earlier absentee votes, which were cast before a judge’s ruling on Tuesday which said industry in the region would not be included in the town, had the measure getting defeated as 83 voters said no, while 59 said yes.

The proposal surfaced several months ago when a small group of Garyville residents decided to try and garner enough signatures on a petition to seek a ballot item for the voters in the area.

Not only did the group, formed as the Garyville Incorporation Committee, get the necessary 700 signatures, but they turned in over 1,300 to Governor Bobby Jindal, who approved the July 19 date for the election.

But since that time, the matter has been one of the most intense and controversial in St. John Parish in many years.

Immediately taking center stage was the issue of whether major industry in the area would be included in the town, and the millions of dollars that is currently going to the St. John Parish coffers.

Organizers had drawn proposed boundaries that not only included major industry such as Marathon and Cargill, but they also drew their boundaries to go all the way to include a portion of Reserve to West 10th Street.

Even though state law gives industry an opportunity to file for an exemption from any future municipality, and even though all the major industry in the area had filed that paperwork, organizers of the drive still went forward with their boundaries.

However this past week in 40th Judicial District Court, ad hoc Judge Anne Simon ruled that the industry did, in fact, have legitimate exemptions and would not be included in part of the town.

Five different industry groups, as well as a group of individuals and businesses from Reserve, had all filed lawsuits in the past weeks against the incorporation committee, intent on having their area taken out of the proposed town.

Garyville Committee Chairperson Geri Baloney has since claimed that there was still plenty of potential money to run the town, counting mainly on a future tank farm to be built by Safeland Storage, which might produce as much as $14 million a year in tax money.

But even that possibility apparently wasn’t enough to convince voters that the move was a good one.

Additionally, Parish President Bill Hubbard went public this week, denouncing some of the promises from the committee leadership, which claimed industry money still could be included in the town, while also refuting their claims that taxes would not be raised.

Hubbard said that a 7 mill tax would, in all liklihood, be raised for residents immediately, not to mention the loss of homestead exemptions for all residents of the town.

The parish even sent out brochures to Garyville residents, that arrived late in the week, and made the point about the taxes and industry.

At stake was tens of millions of dollars in tax money from industry like Marathon, Cargill, Nalco, Stockhausen and Gramercy Alumina, that was sought by the Garyville Incorporation Committee from the beginning.

Baloney still believes that a portion of the tax money from those industries could have gone to Garyville, had the election gone in their favor.

“Even if we don’t have the industry currently in question, we could have $16 million a year in taxes, should we get the Safeland tank farm taxes, which we should get,” she said. “But I still contend we have every chance to get money from industry, if we are just given a chance to get to a full trial on the matter.”

Marathon attorney Dan Wellons said that the judge’s ruling made it almost certain that the Town of Garyville, if it was formed, would never get the current tax money from industry that is going to the parish.

“Geri is missing the point on purpose, all putting false hope in people who have to vote on this,” Wellons stated before the election. “The judge told us at the beginning of the trial that we had to meet a higher standard for proof of our industrial status to get this injunction, and that’s what we did. For the injunction to be issued, we have proven that we have a high probability of winning at any future trial.”

Nonetheless, Baloney issued a press release on Thursday, headed by “Incorporators Claim Victory!” and highlighting what she says is over $16 million in tax money Garyville could have. However $14 million of that is counting on coming from the still-unbuilt Safeland Storage tank farm.

Baloney was unavailable for comment on the vote totals Saturday night.