Sunday, December 31, 2006
Editorial: A tale of a city that wants to be a town
Henry County's reluctance to watch Martinsville revert to an incorporated town is understandable, but that appears to be the best possible solution.
From the RoundTable blog
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Desperate times call for desperate measures, and times don't get much more desperate than they are in Martinsville and Henry County.
As outlined in a study presented to Henry County last January, the county and city have lost 10,000 jobs in a decade. The machinery and tools tax base in Martinsville evaporated, declining by 76 percent.
So city officials are contemplating desperate measures, including a reversion from independent city to incorporated town status.
And county officials, fearful that the resulting transfer of services and responsibility to the county would be an anchor thrown to a drowning man, are resisting mightily.
Most recently, county officials suggested that if Martinsville is going to revert, it should revert all the way. Rather than becoming an incorporated town, Martinsville should completely abandon its charter and become just another part of the county.
The county's reticence is understandable. If Martinsville reverts to an incorporated town, responsibility for schools, jails and other services provided by the independent city would fall on the county.
The county would gain revenue in the form of property and sales tax from town residents. But the study presented in January determined the revenue would fall short of new expenses by about $5.4 million.
Frightened of this potential expense, county officials resorted to an underhanded legislative effort to change the rules in the middle of the game and force city officials to hold a citywide referendum before they could revert to town status.
That bill, pushed last session at the county's request, was withdrawn to give the county and city time to work out their differences, an effort that doesn't seem to be going very well.
The county's latest proposal is wholly unsatisfactory and most likely not even legally feasible.
It would probably take a special act of the General Assembly to dissolve Martinsville's charter.
And what would that accomplish? The county would gain 15,000 residents used to a higher level of government service than the county provides, with no structure in place to continue those services.
It would be the worst of both worlds.
There are no villains in this story. Both Martinsville and Henry County officials are trying to do what they believe is right.
The culprit is the independent cities concept -- and Henry County is not the only place that unique Virginia institution forces local officials into cross purposes.
The independent cities rule fosters competition within regions, creating a zero-sum mentality that makes true cooperation nearly impossible.
Couple that with Virginia's moratorium on annexation that makes it impossible for urban areas to capture suburban growth, and the commonwealth's cities are practically hog-tied.
Henry County officials can't see it now, but it would probably be in everyone's best interest for Martinsville to revert to incorporated town status.
Martinsville would be able to provide additional services to town residents, with the taxing districts and city structure already in place. And the town and county could cooperate to provide the most efficient services countywide.
It's what local government throughout Virginia ought to look like.
