Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 24, 1993 TAG: 9307240187
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Allen said Friday that he has asked a group of "far-sighted" business leaders from across the state to study the system to see if it inhibits economic development, as many critics claim.
Allen acknowledged that Virginia's unique system of local government - the Old Dominion is the only state where cities and counties are mutually exclusive - has been studied repeatedly over the years.
But he said in an interview in Roanoke that he is considering making a push to restructure local government as part of his agenda to make Virginia more competitive in attracting new employers.
Allen cautioned that overhauling local government wouldn't be his highest priority as governor. However, he said, "I realize we're fairly anachronistic in Virginia in the way independent cities and counties and annexation and so forth is approached. There's got to be a better way of doing it to meet the needs of today."
Allen offered no details, except to say that he is opposed to lifting the ban on cities' annexing suburban counties and he wouldn't do away with any local government without voters' consent.
Allen also said he would make no specific proposal until after the November election, when his panel of business leaders - whom he wouldn't identify - makes its report.
"It's an emotional issue for many people and understandably so - it's their local government that may be threatened," Allen said. "But I think we really do need, as a service to the people, to look at whether there's a better way of administering government at the local level in a way more effective to taxpayers and more conducive to people making investments."
Not since the 1960s, when Gov. Mills Godwin appointed a high-profile commission headed by Marshall Hahn, then the president of Virginia Tech, has a Virginia governor attempted to tackle the conflicts between land-locked central cities and their fast-growing suburbs.
The Hahn Commission proposed setting up elected regional governments to deal with water, sewer, transportation, economic development and other issues that cross jurisdictional lines.
But skeptical legislators wound up approving only the creation of appointed regional-planning commissions with mere advisory power.
One of the state's leading experts on local government - John Moeser, who heads the Department of Urban Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University - found it odd that Allen, of all people, would again broach the subject.
That's because any re-examination of Virginia's system of local government, Moeser said, inevitably leads to a discussion of whether affluent suburbs should begin helping financially stressed central cities shoulder some of the burden for regional projects.
"It's just strange that you'd have a conservative Republican doing it. This is just a subject you associate more with Democrats, and progressive Democrats at that," Moeser said. "If he's talking about this, that would be the equivalent of Nixon going to China."
However, Allen's interest in Virginia's system of local government comes at a time when business leaders in both Richmond and the Roanoke Valley have expressed concern that their communities are economically falling behind other cities in the Southeast.
Furthermore, in both Richmond and the Roanoke Valley, many business leaders have blamed part of the problem on the lack of regional cooperation between cities and their surrounding counties.
Allen cited their concerns as the basis for his interest in re-examining the state's system of local government. "This isn't from polls," Allen said. "This doesn't even show up. It's not even on the radar screen as far as polls are concerned. This comes from talking to people who are knowledgeable as far as what the heck's going on.
"You hear it in the Roanoke Valley. I hear it in Pittsylvania and Danville, how we lost Miller Brewing across the line to Eden, N.C. What's the difference? It's the same water in North Carolina. But [Miller] considered the lack of predictability between Danville and Pittsylvania a problem. You hear it in Richmond . . . They say `Gosh, look what they're doing in Charlotte,'" where North Carolina has a different system of local government that some see as a factor in that city's economic growth.
Allen warned that restructuring Virginia's system of local government "is not a panacea."
"But it may help," he said. "There are probably a dozen major factors, but that could be one."
Moeser noted that the state's business community has been getting "restive" about the lack of regional cooperation.
He speculated that Allen's interest in examining Virginia's system of local government may be a bid for support from business leaders - especially those in Richmond's financial community, where support for Allen has been noticeably soft and concern about the city's economic future high.
Moeser said there have been hints in Richmond business circles that Allen might take an interest in the issue.
Moeser recalled a recent meeting of the Caucus for the Future of Central Virginia, a group of Richmond-area business and civic leaders who meet periodically to discuss economic issues. One Republican business leader stunned the group by predicting Allen would be the first Virginia governor to deal with the financial stress of the state's central cities.
"Most of us had our mouths open," Moeser said. "We said, `Why do you think that? That's not Allen's background.' He said, `I got it from George Allen himself.'"
A spokesman for Democrat Mary Sue Terry said she had no plans to push for restructuring local government, but instead would offer leadership to promote regional cooperation.
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Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB