State lawmakers are being asked to extend and expand West Virginia’s Home Rule Pilot Program.
For the past five years, home rule has given city leaders in Wheeling, Charleston, Bridgeport and Huntington more control over how their cities operate. Without legislative action, the program will end on July first.
Wheeling Mayor Andy McKenzie says it should be allowed to continue beyond that point.
“I can tell you, if you look at experience and what we’ve done in Wheeling and what they’ve done in other parts of the state already, these four cities, we’ve been able to reduce the burden. We’ve been able to get rid of bureaucracy in our community,” Mayor McKenzie said on Monday’s MetroNews Talkline.
“We realize, at the local level, that there are just some things that one size doesn’t fit.”
Mayor McKenzie, a former state Senator, says many city problems cannot be solved from Charleston. That’s why he’s calling on lawmakers to extend the pilot program, which was first approved in 2007, for five more years and expand it to other cities.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones agrees. “We can do it better,” he said.
He says its local leaders who are closest to to their communities and the most accountable to voters.
“They can grab me by the political neck and throw me right out or any of my council members,” Mayor Jones said. “We have wards that are small and we have a lot of council members. That’s where the power should be.”
The West Virginia Municipal League supports the extension of the West Virginia Home Rule Pilot Program.
The 2013 Regular Legislative Session runs through April 13th.
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Comments
Robert
Extend home rule in exchange for cracking down on annexation abuse.
Fair trade.
February 18, 2013 at 3:18 pm | Report comment
RHytonen
Corportins LOVE this. The more local the "rule," the cheaper and easier it is for a corporation to corrupt.
Ask anyone from MA why Romneycare didn't work, and actually raised prices. It's the same reason all the credit card companies moved to Delaware. The politicoeconomic term for this is, a "race to the bottom." Same principle as a "right to work (for less) state."
Remember one thing: one state stealing jobs from another by offering the companies taxpayer funds (which must come from public services and other workers,) is NOT "Job Creation."
It's simple upward redistribution of wealth, and results in permanent unemployment (homelessness, starvation, suffering, and death) for millions, while the wealthiest get even richer.
February 18, 2013 at 4:44 pm | Report comment
SHADOW
What I read from this is: Local Pols are easier to corrupt than those on the State and/or Federal Level. Interesting thought.
February 18, 2013 at 7:45 pm | Report comment