Sunday, February 24, 2008
Paying our own way
Christian Trejbal
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This is a great time of year. Two state agencies release a heap of numerical bliss every January and February almost as if to coincide with the short, winter days and dreary weather that keep Virginians cooped up.
One report comes from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. The commonwealth's top demographers reveal their most recent population estimates for localities.
The other report comes from the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts. It compiles localities' audited financial results, how much money they raised and how much they spent.
So maybe you have to be a demographics and statistics geek to get excited about this minutiae.
That or you have to get paid to wade into the minutiae. For me it's a bit of both.
As I studied the spreadsheet and calculated percentages and per capita spending, interesting trends emerged.
New River Valley residents get their government on the cheap. Craig, Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford all raise less money per capita than the state median. Around here, Giles County collects the most: $2,437 for every man, woman and child in the budget year that ended June 30. The median for Virginia cities and counties was $2,701.
Revenue primarily comes from three sources: local taxes and fees, and state and federal funding.
Our communities don't waste money on government administration, either. Floyd County spent $55 per capita, for example. Only Radford, $132, spent substantially more than the state median of $106, but cities tend to cost a bit more to manage than counties.
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All of which speaks well for local governments. The New River Valley is lean and efficient.
But the numbers aren't uniformly positive. They also reveal a conservative hypocrisy that permeates much of the valley.
Lazy pundits often claim that Democrats like to spend, spend, spend. When the party controls Congress or the General Assembly, cash flows easily by way of subsidies and bleeding-heart programs.
Republicans, the story continues, are responsible with public dollars. They don't waste money. Good conservatives stand on their own abilities and take care of themselves without government handouts.
Were those portrayals accurate, one would find that conservative localities strike boldly independent financial courses. The communities that vote Republican pay their own way while liberal locales suckle at the state and federal teat whenever they can.
What one actually finds is just the opposite. Localities that voted Republican in recent elections rely more heavily on state and federal welfare to provide local services.
Consider Craig County. It raises only 36 percent of its money locally. Yet it voted heavily for far-right conservatives such as Jerry Kilgore and Bob McDonnell in 2005 and George Allen in 2006. Each was a close election statewide but a landslide for the Republican in Craig County.
The same goes for the other conservative communities in the New River Valley and, indeed, around Virginia.
Meanwhile, Montgomery County, which favored the Democrats in those races, funds 47 percent of its services itself.
The state median is 52 percent funded locally. Liberal bastions of Northern Virginia pay up to 80 percent of their own way.
Conservatives talk big about self-reliance, but progressive communities live it.
Is it any wonder, then, that Northern Virginia tires of hearing Southwest Virginia and other rural parts of the state demand more help from Richmond? Perhaps we should start by helping ourselves.
Local governments right now are working on their budgets for next year. Supervisors and council members need to decide what services residents want, what they will cost and then set an appropriate tax rate to raise the money.
Maybe then Montgomery County could spend more on public safety -- $100 per capita compared to a state median $328 -- Craig County could spend more for parks, recreation and cultural activities -- $1.65 compared to $55 -- and Giles County could spend more on community development -- $17 compared to $53.
We had better prepare now. In a few years, after the next Census and redistricting, there's a good chance the balance of power in the commonwealth will shift even more toward the north. They might decide to end the big subsidies
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
