BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Metro Council signed off on Mayor Sid Edwards' plan outlining the hand off of tax revenue and oversight of services from the city parish to the city of St. George.

The agreement passed in a 10-2 vote, with Darryl Hurst and Cleve Dunn voting against it. It included a transfer of services and tax revenue, but the two against it said it was incomplete.

Before the measure can go into effect, the City of St. George will have to approve the agreement at their next council meeting formally.

Come July 1, the City of St. George will have control over their own city assets like roadways and drainage. As part of the agreement, East Baton Rouge will pay just over $17 million of sales tax revenue since July 1, 2024. Then, starting this July, St. George will begin collecting the 2% sales tax that voters chose to transfer over late last year.

"It's not so much about an agreement," St. George Mayor Dustin Yates said. "To me, it's about the relationship building. It's a platform that we can jump off."

However, council members thought the agreement that passed wasn't in its complete form. Cleve Dunn blamed the mayor-president's administration for the mix-up.

Dunn says several components were missing from the intergovernmental agreement, including the city's incorporation date and the sewage collection fee agreement.

"We moved forward in good faith, anticipating that would be on the agenda, and that was not on the agenda," Dunn said.

Charlie Davis with the Mayor-President's office says the sewage agreement still needs some work, and it was sent back to St. George for approval earlier in the day.

"The sewage agreement is important but it's a good example of a number of agreements that have to be resolved to make sure that flooding is taken care of, to make sure flood insurance works well," Davis said. "The sewage agreement is important but it's not as important as the first significant step we took tonight."