Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406030076
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Except in Virginia. Here, where it's widely agreed that the local-government structure is broken, the General Assembly confuses a moratorium with a fix.
How else explain the institutionalization of a moratorium banning city annexations into suburban counties? The ban, on the books for 19 of the past 23 years, was unceremoniously extended by this year's legislature until 1997. Nary a ripple of dissent did Del. Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, encounter when he proposed the latest extension - one of many since the first moratorium in 1971.
Putney's moratorium-extension bill was intended as an insurance policy for Bedford city and Bedford County - insurance against the unlikely prospect that Lynchburg could move with the speed of light to annex part of Bedford County next year, when the moratorium previously was due to expire, before Bedford city and county voters could act on any plan that emerges from current consolidation discussions.
But the why-and-what-for of Putney's bill isn't the point here. Nor is annexation itself, which is no panacea for fostering regional cooperation.
The point is that the moratorium has become the assembly's artless dodge of the worsening creakiness of local government. The problems afflict not only core cities such as Roanoke, Lynchburg and Richmond. Smaller cities and towns, and counties both rural and suburban also suffer from a local-government system better suited for the horse-and-buggy era than the space age.
In some respects, the difficulties of local government in Virginia are no worse than those of local government in many other states. What sets Virginia apart is the oddball structure wherein cities are independent from counties - which guarantees that adversial thistles will thrive.
The structure itself aggravates many of local governments' current problems, fiscal and otherwise. It is also largely to blame for the bumper crop of city-county hostilities that, nearly a quarter-century ago, prompted the legislature's initial enactment of an annexation moratorium.
Since, however, the assembly has done virtually nothing to update the system. A few shows of good intentions - the four-year Grayson Commission on local-government restructuring, for instance - have come to naught. Meanwhile, fresh studies each year indict the system as an anachronistic weight under which local governments must struggle to survive.
During his campaign last year, Gov. George Allen signaled that, if elected, he would tackle the restructuring task. He said what many experts have said: The current system has inhibited Virginia's progress and economic development.
So far, Allen has given no sign that he's on the case. If the governor were to take the lead, perhaps the legislature would bestir itself from the stupor induced by its mantra of moratorium, moratorium, manana, manana.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB