Tag: revenue sharing

Categories
News

YOU issue: Cities vs. counties

Here’s what readers wanted to know:

Why is Virginia the only state with multiple independent cities? The city/county split here seems to lead to more difficulties than not. —David Moltz

Why did Charlottesville become an independent city in the first place? What ridiculous conflicts and duplication of services have we had over the years? Why does it persist? What’s the future for the Charlottesville-Albemarle relationship?—Nathan Moore

The whys of independent cities appear to be a burning issue over at WTJU, from whence these two inquiries came—although GM Moore assures us he and Moltz were not in cahoots with the questions and that this is not an official WTJU inquiry.

Here’s what we know: Out of 41 independent cities nationwide, 38 are in Virginia. These cities got charters from the General Assembly and are not part of the surrounding counties—in our case, Albemarle.

In England around the time this country was founded, entities like the Dutch East India Company were created as corporations and given special powers. Former mayor Frank Buck says cities in the new Virginia colony, which was largely developed by the English, followed that model. Cities went to the legislature to ask for an act to incorporate as independent bodies, while counties were land grants and considered part of the state government, he says.

Cities had more power and could facilitate growth by annexing land, which did not make surrounding counties like Albemarle happy.

That became the genesis of the revenue-sharing agreement, the question we thought we would get from readers but didn’t. We’ll take this opportunity to explain anyway.

Charlottesville wanted to annex land on U.S. 29 north to the Rivanna River, east to Pantops, south to I-64, and west to Farmington, says former city manager Cole Hendrix. Not surprisingly, Albemarle was freaking out with the potential loss of land—and tax revenue—in its urban ring.

So City Council and the Board of Supervisors sat down to find an alternative, and revenue-sharing, in which Albemarle pays 10 cents of its property tax rate to Charlottesville every year, was the agreed-upon solution and was approved by the county voters in 1982.

Ironically, five years later in 1987, the General Assembly put a moratorium on annexation. But Albemarle was still stuck paying out millions to Charlottesville every year.

“Newcomers come into town and say, ‘This doesn’t make sense,’” says Hendrix. Nonetheless, Albemarle can’t get out of it unless the city and county merge, they mutually agree to cancel or alter the agreement, or the General Assembly decides to change the concept of independent cities and make them part of a county’s tax base.

Delegate Steve Landes added a budget amendment in 2017 that would have invalidated the agreement, but ended up withdrawing it because of unintended consequences to other localities. This year, he carried a bill that was signed into law and requires localities like Charlottesville to report how it spends the money, and for city and county to talk annually.

The revenue-sharing agreement led to a petition for Charlottesville to revert to town status in 1996 because of declining revenues. That would have allowed the city and county to combine duplicate government services like schools and police. “No one wanted to do that” as far as the schools, says Hendrix.

He points out the two jurisdictions do have joint agreements for services such as the airport, Rivanna Water and Sewer, and libraries.

Here’s another city/county divide factoid: “The original Grounds of the University of Virginia by fiat were in the county,” says Hendrix. When UVA began buying land in the city, it took that property off the tax rolls. “We had a gentleman’s agreement with the university,” he says: If the land was for educational purposes, it wasn’t taxed. If it was for non-educational purposes, for example, a football field, UVA paid taxes on it. 

Updated November 30 with Nathan Moore’s clarification that he and Moltz were not representing WTJU when they posed the questions about independent cities. 

Categories
News

In brief: Thin Mint mania, cheap(er) hotels, glorious victory and more

Girl Scout Troop 352 leader Diana Filipi set up shop at Kroger at Rio Hill on January 28 with Brownie scouts Ophelia Filipi, Kaitlyn Hicks, Keri Smith and Lylah Burtner. Staff photo

It’s Girl Scout cookie season

Good luck getting around town without encountering a wide-eyed girl at a cookie booth who wants to sell you one box of each flavor. How could you say no?

For the past two weekends, girls have set up shop at dozens of locations around town. To get the scoop on this year’s cookie sale, we went straight to the source.

“I love selling cookies because it makes me feel really happy,” says Keri Smith, a Burnley Moran second-grader in Brownie Troop 352. “And the best part is maybe at the end, we get to eat them.”

Keri’s friend and fellow second-grader Lylah Burtner says, “My favorite part is when I meet new people, because I always make friends when I sell the cookies.”

Troops make a 65-cent profit from each box they sell. “I’m hoping I can get a big, big, big mansion and then I’ll get a fuzzy couch,” says Lylah.

It’s Lylah’s first cookie sale, and she’s quickly reminded that girls don’t get to keep their profits. Keri says she hopes their troop raises enough money to go to Virginia Beach this summer.

“I just really, really, really want to go to the beach,” she says.

Janet Driscoll Miller, the membership facilitator for the local service unit, says cookie sales help fund all of the activities and support that the Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline Council provides. For every box of cookies purchased, 74 percent goes directly back to Girl Scouts.

“Even more important than the funds, however, are the opportunities to learn business and marketing skills,” she says. “I was a Girl Scout as a girl, and as an adult, I started my own business and run a marketing agency.”

The top-selling cookie in Charlottesville and Albemarle? “As is true probably everywhere, our area loves Thin Mints,” says Driscoll Miller. Local girls sold more than 30,000 boxes of them last year.

And if you need to get your fix, there’s an app for that. Sales end March 31, so download the Cookie Finder app today to search for a cookie booth near you.

By the numbers:

  • 70,980 boxes of cookies sold in Charlottesville/Albemarle in 2017
  • 30 percent were Thin Mints
  • 21 percent were Caramel deLites
  • 750 Girl Scouts in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area
  • $4 for one box of cookies
  • $0.65 troop profit per box

Quote of the Week: “We were born for this and built for this. This is what we worked for.”—UVA’s Kyle Guy after beating Duke 65-63 January 27 at Cameron Stadium in Durham for the first time since 1995

 

Storm Team loss

NBC29’s longtime weather guy Norm Sprouse exited the newscast January 23 after 27 years on the air. He’ll continue part-time behind the scene as he eases into retirement.

It’s baaack

Delegate Steve Landes again is carrying a bill that would affect the revenue-sharing agreement loved by Charlottesville and loathed by Albemarle. In exchange for ceasing annexation in 1982, the county has since paid the city $311 million, even after the state halted annexation in 1987. The bill allows localities in such agreements for more than 10 years to renegotiate and calls for reviews after five years in future economic growth-sharing deals.

Another arrest in August 12 beating

This time, police have taken into custody Tyler Watkins Davis, a 49-year-old man from Middleburg, Florida, who they say maliciously wounded DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage beatdown.

 

 

 

Downward trend

It costs 44 percent less to book a room at the Albemarle Estate at Trump Winery than it did a year ago when President Donald Trump was inaugurated, according to the Washington Post, which reported January 24 that nine of his most expensive properties have experienced significant price drops.

“Demonized?”

Jason Kessler’s March perjury trial will take place in Albemarle, despite his one-inch thick motion to change the venue because, he says, dozens of news stories make it impossible to get a fair trial. His lawyer, Mike Hallahan, argued “sleeper activists” could slip onto the jury, but Judge Cheryl Higgins said January 30 the publicity wasn’t enough to change the location of the trial, and she’s taking the motion under advisement.

Shoo flu, don’t bother me

We’ve all heard that the flu is particularly nasty this year, but the local area hasn’t been hit as hard as others.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, there’s widespread flu activity in the state’s Northwest region where our Thomas Jefferson Health District is located, but in the second week of the year—the most recent available data—only 4 percent of emergency room and urgent care visits were for flu-like illnesses.

The UVA Health System saw 150 probable flu cases between January 8 and 21, says spokesperson Eric Swensen.

“At this point, we’re characterizing the flu season as an early and moderately heavy flu season, but not outside our recent experience with the flu,” he says.

And according to Charlottesville High School nurse Ann Sandridge, a minimal number of kids in city schools have come down with the illness.

“There are no red flags right now,” she says.

 

Categories
News

Landes’ surprise: Move to thwart revenue sharing catches locals unaware

So far, Delegate Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, has not explained his interest in voluntary settlements such as Albemarle and Charlottesville’s revenue-sharing agreement. File photo Since 1982, Albemarle County has paid the city of Charlottesville $280,092,577 in revenue sharing dollars. Here’s a look at contributions for the most recent fiscal years. Albemarle County

Albemarle hates it and Charlottesville loves it. But neither jurisdiction saw Delegate Steve Landes’ budget amendment coming that could scrub a 1982 agreement in which Albemarle pays millions every year to Charlottesville for the privilege of not being annexed—even though the General Assembly put a moratorium on annexation in 1987.

“The county was only recently made aware of this budget amendment proposed by Delegate Landes and is currently assessing exactly how it might impact the revenue-sharing agreement, including budgetary implications,” says county spokesperson Jody Saunders about the measure first reported by NBC29.

Albemarle has paid Charlottesville more than $280 million in the 35 years the agreement has been in effect, most recently writing a check for nearly $16 million for fiscal year 2016-17. The revenue-sharing agreement was signed after it was approved in a referendum, with the county agreeing to share 10 cents of its real estate tax rate each year with the city.

Weyers Cave resident Landes represents western Albemarle, and while he’s heard from irate constituents about the revenue-sharing agreement, particularly at budget time when the perpetually cash-strapped county debates real estate tax increases, the move came as a “total surprise” to the Board of Supervisors, says chair Diantha McKeel.

“Right now we’re gathering information,” she says. “We don’t know what the ramifications are.”

She suggested C-VILLE contact Landes for more information about the amendment, but so far, the delegate has not returned multiple requests for comment.

“We just sort of spotted it,” says House Minority Leader David Toscano. “[Landes] is on the appropriations committee. It would be easy for him to get it in a budget amendment.”

Toscano has several concerns. The revenue- sharing agreement is a policy issue that typically would be handled with a patron who would introduce a bill, he says. Using a budget amendment is “very unusual,” he says.

“There are terrible unintended consequences,” he says. Around 50 other jurisdictions, including Lexington and Rockbridge County and Lynchburg and Campbell County, have voluntary agreements on annexation issues. “There are tremendous implications for other jurisdictions,” says Toscano.

“And when you use the language of the amendment, it’s very difficult to understand,” he says.

Indeed, C-VILLE had to seek a translation from UVA law professor Rich Schragger.

“Hmmm, this is hard, but I think that it means that agreements between localities that involve a waiver of a right to annex are invalid if the Assembly has placed a moratorium on annexations,” Schragger writes in an e-mail. “In other words, an agreement to forgo exercising a right that is now unavailable to the city (because there is now an annexation moratorium) is invalid.”

What is unclear, says Schragger, is whether the legislature could void an existing contract between Charlottesville and Albemarle that’s supposed to be perpetual.

“It’s a very interesting legal question,” says Toscano. “Typically I don’t believe the legislature can impinge on the right of contracts, but it could be possible. I don’t know.”

Toscano, a former Charlottesville mayor, says he would not support the amendment. The revenue agreement has “benefited both localities,” he says, and suggests the city reserve a portion of the payment for capital improvements that have regional uses. “A classic example would be the courts, which would benefit both jurisdictions.”

Supervisor Rick Randolph made a similar suggestion last year as Albemarle considered moving its courthouses from downtown. “I proposed a reduction of 50 percent of what we’re actually paying,” he says, because of the economic benefit the city gains from having county courts within its limits. “All I was saying was, ‘Let’s talk about it,’” he says.

Not surprisingly, city officials are skeptical about the amendment. “It sounds to me like a political trick,” says City Councilor Bob Fenwick. “It’s a contract. I don’t see how [Landes] can break it. That would wreak havoc on contract law in Virginia.”

Former mayor Dave Norris points out that both jurisdictions agreed to the measure, and says it has served them well. “The city could have collected millions” in tax revenue if it had annexed more of the county’s urban ring, he says, and the revenue sharing has “kept the urban center healthy.”

Toscano suspects the amendment won’t make it into the budget. “I think when Steve realizes he’s opened a can of worms that will affect other jurisdictions, I think he’ll kill it,” he says. “I don’t think he wants to upset the commonwealth’s apple cart.”

Information Courtesy Albemarle County