Independent Cities?

[vdogg]

Higher population wouldn't lower the taxes you pay very much, if at all. More people require more municipal services, which require more tax revenue. What many municipalitites attempt to do is attract commercial development to increase "rateables." Although municipalities often offer tax incentives to attract commercial investment, it is usually the hope that over time non-residential uses will carry a larger share of the tax burden.

Good point, this is in fact the major factor behind Virginia Beachs drive to urbanize. So far TC has concentrated mostly on residential development, but additional office/commericial development was always the centerpiece of that project. Even at that, it will take substantial commercial development to even make a dent in the tax rates.

[electricmonk]

Saw a report on the news this afternoon that Martinsville is going to try to revert back to town status. Their state representative introduced a bill to hold a referendum on it. Haven't found a recent online story about it yet.

[StevenRocks]

Saw a report on the news this afternoon that Martinsville is going to try to revert back to town status. Their state representative introduced a bill to hold a referendum on it. Haven't found a recent online story about it yet.

Most of the city and Henry County's services are combined anyway. It's a logical step.

[fivedayrental]

Connecticut doesn't even have a county system of government, for anything other than the courts and for geographical purposes. It does have some advantages by having less bureaucracy to deal with but also creates problems with taxes (town A is new,rich, growingand has low taxes, while town B is a large city, with decaying population/businesses and has higher taxes) and other things like that.

[Glassoul]

Connecticut doesn't even have a county system of government, for anything other than the courts and for geographical purposes. It does have some advantages by having less bureaucracy to deal with but also creates problems with taxes (town A is new,rich, growingand has low taxes, while town B is a large city, with decaying population/businesses and has higher taxes) and other things like that.

To give another perspective of how screwed up things can get, consider the system in Qu

[Brent]

Even without independent cities, counties would still compete and wouldn't necessarily be any more cooperative than they are now. Chesterfield would still be beotchy towards Henrico, Hanover to Caroline, Warwick to Queen Anne etc... The independent city in VA is essentially a county. If our regions wanted to work together they would, the status of a place wouldn