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Home rule expansion makes sense

West Virginia has a highly centralized government.  Local governments have historically been restricted in what they can do by state law, reducing those political bodies to limp extensions of Charleston.

However, that’s now changing.

In 2007, the Legislature approved a home rule pilot project.  Four cities – Bridgeport, Charleston, Huntington and Wheeling – were allowed to implement ordinances, rules and regulations without regard to state laws, as long as they complied with the U.S. and State Constitutions.

The results have been significant.

According to a 2012 Legislative audit, Bridgeport reduced the number of business license application categories from 81 to one.  Charleston and Huntington issued liens for delinquent city fees and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wheeling instituted a vacant property registration program that has helped the city clean up blighted areas.

Based on that success, the home rule program is being expanded to 16 additional cities.  23 municipalities have applied for those 16 spots.  The reasons city leaders have made the applications are as varied as the communities themselves.

The Charleston Daily Mail reports Morgantown wants to ban upholstered furniture from porches and yards to try to cut down on postgame celebratory street fires.  Berkeley Springs wants to permit spas to employ out-of-state licensed massage therapists.   Lewisburg wants to use a portion of a hotel tax to fund libraries.

The most common proposal, as well as the most controversial, is the ability to create a municipal sales tax.  Some critics believe home rule is just another pathway to higher taxes.

However, government needs to collect money to pay for the services citizens expect, and currently municipalities are extremely limited in how they can raise revenue.  Home rule puts some taxing authority in the hands of leaders who are closest to the people.  If citizens don’t like a council-approved sales tax, they can vote them out in the next election.

Home rule is also the state version of federalism.  Municipalities will serve as laboratories for ideas that, if successful, can be adopted at the state level.  That’s already happened with some of the proposals implemented in the four cities under the pilot program.

It’s evident that home rule creates better government.  As Huntington Mayor Steve Williams told the Daily Mail, “The beauty of home rule is we can now craft our ordinances to meet the immediate needs of our community.”

It’s not easy for any government body to give up a portion of its control, but that’s what the state Legislature should continue to do.  Home rule shifts power to communities to make important decisions about how they want their government to function.

 

That’s a smart way to solve problems.





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