DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B15  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: Patrick Lackey

                                            LENGTH:   87 lines

ANNEXATION MYSTERY AMENDMENT DRIVES TENNESSEE CITIES MAD

For Tennessee cities, it was the amendment from hell, their worst nightmare, a hand grenade in their midst, a doomsday device.

Stealthily passed and signed into law last April, right under the noses of cities' lobbyists, the amendment allows virtually any group of 225 or more people anywhere in the state to become a city and thus to immunize themselves from annexation by any other city. One apartment building's residents are attempting to have it incorporated as a city.

The amendment may condemn some existing Tennessee cities to endure increasing expenses without any chance of expansion to gain new revenue. If a huge shopping center opens just outside a city's limits, drawing city residents across the city line to shop, the city cannot engulf it.

Previously in Tennessee, the city could have annexed the land the mall was on and the tax base with it. Not anymore. Cities are in shock.

In Virginia, isolating and strangling cities is business as usual. The General Assembly does it on purpose to protect suburban and county residents and businesses from ever having to pay city taxes.

Inability to expand is a major reason Virginia cities are fiscally stressed. According to a recent report by the Virginia Commission on Local Government, the agency charged with monitoring localities, cities make up 18 of the 21 localities in the commonwealth suffering from going ``high (fiscal) stress.'' Of the 20 localities with ``low stress,'' only three are cities. (Those figures are for 1994-95, but presumably current figures would be similar.)

In stark contrast, Tennessee cities were free to capture factories or shopping centers just beyond their borders. In fact, Tennessee had one of the most liberal annexation laws in the country - prior to passage of the dreaded amendment - and the cities have prospered. Alan Ehrenhalt wrote in his column in the October issue of ``Governing: The Magazine of States and Localities'':

``Downtown Memphis was a deteriorating husk two decades ago; in the 1990s, it has come to life as a sports and entertainment center. Chattanooga has been even more successful, rebuilding its central core to the point where it is often cited as a role model for urban revival.

``If you ask economic development specialists why Tennessee cities have fared well, there's a good chance they will point to the annexation law as a key factor. The cities were not landlocked. They had the freedom to grow, albeit by swallowing suburbanites who didn't ask to be part of the growth.''

Nobody in the Tennessee legislature admits to writing or supporting the mystery amendment. Last April 3, an innocuous and unrelated bill to which it was somehow attached passed 92-1 in the Tennessee House of Representatives, after maybe a minute of debate. Days later the state Senate passed the same bill, which was quietly signed into law.

A few weeks passed before cities began to realize what had been done to them. They screamed in protest, to no avail. They sued, with no luck so far. Their case has gone before the state Supreme Court.

According to one theory, an attempt by the state lieutenant governor to allow one tiny community to become a city went terribly awry. But after six months of rumors and gossip, no one knows. The sponsor of the bill denies any knowledge of the amendment.

Oddly, the amendment expires in April 1998, but by then, brand new cities may surround some of the major cities, hemming them in forever.

Currently, a massive mall just outside Memphis provides tax revenue both to that city and Shelby County. A small area including the mall is attempting to become the city of Independence, in which case, columnist Ehrenhalt noted, ``it would be a sort of municipal Kuwait, with barrels of money and very few people to spend it on.'' Memphis and Shelby County residents would still shop at the mall, of course. Memphis and the county would become less fiscally healthy because of the loss of revenue.

Virginia's 40 cities are so mistreated by the state that about a dozen of them are considering becoming towns. Virginia cities are isolated by law from adjoining or surrounding counties, but if a city reverts to being a town, it becomes part of the county, sharing taxes and education and other responsibilities. Its debilitating isolation is ended.

Only Virginia cities of less than 50,000 can revert to towns. South Boston actually did it in 1995. Charlottesville, Winchester, Staunton, Clinton Forge and Fredericksburg are among those mulling the same move.

And what is the Virginia General Assembly's reaction to cities wishing to become towns? A movement is afoot in Richmond to effectively make cities remain cities. A bill to do so lost by one vote in committee last year and will be back next year. The Virginia Municipal League, which lobbies for cities and towns, is worried that it might pass.

Someone should tell Virginia legislators that the commonwealth cannot prosper unless its cities prosper and that the cities will never prosper while being isolated from surrounding counties and strangled by the state.Mystery amendment drives Tennessee cities mad MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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