THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070346
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
An ``urban partnership'' of business and government leaders formally launched its drive for a $200-million regional cooperation fund Wednesday with an appeal to fearful suburbanites.
``We are not talking about regional government. We are not talking today about any tax increases, and we're not talking about a poverty program,'' said former Gov. Linwood Holton, who has been retained by the partnership to lobby the General Assembly for a legislative package, including the fund.
``We are talking, plain and simple, economic development,'' he said, citing the partnership's principal concern - that the decline of Virginia cities is strangling the state economically.
Even so, Holton told about 100 mayors, city managers, businessmen and onlookers, that selling the package in a General Assembly increasingly dominated by suburbanites ``is going to be a tough assignment . . . because people don't understand that the positives outweigh the negatives.''
Confirming that assessment, Virginia Beach Assistant City Manager Bob Matthias said after the meeting that suburban cities and counties are skeptical of the incentive fund.
The idea is to reward localities that voluntarily set goals for regional cooperation in areas such as transportation, economic development or education, and fulfill them.
``Everybody's afraid of that,'' said Matthias, referring to the fund. ``A lot of people have the attitude, when you see a snake, you kill it.''
Nor was a spokesman for GOP Gov. George F. Allen encouraging. ``The goals are certainly ones that we support,'' said Kenneth Stroupe. ``I think we are looking for existing vehicles rather than additional spending to accomplish that.''
The Virginia Association of Counties recently took a position in opposition to the partnership's legislation, primarily because members said they were uncertain about how to pay for the fund.
The partnership's legislative package is the outgrowth of an 18-month evaluation of the economic status of Virginia's counties and cities. Eighteen localities and some of the state's most prominent business leaders have joined the effort, although some of the suburban partners have been clear that their membership does not equate to support of the legislative agenda.
The conclusion of those studies is that the state's governmental structure, which separates counties and cities, has left urban localities in increasingly dire economic straits.
Partnership advocates, including the State Chamber of Commerce, argue that the decline of the cities is damaging the entire state. They point to studies such as one showing that, between 1970 and 1990, Virginia's rate of income growth per private sector job was 1 percent, while North Carolina's was 6.7 percent and Georgia's was 11.2 percent.
Evidence is overwhelming that ``where there are large economic disparities between suburbs and central core cities, there will be reduced economic growth for the whole region,'' said Virginia State University President Eddie Moore Jr., keynote speaker for the meeting.
As outlined by Holton and others, the partnership's legislative package has several goals in addition to the incentive fund:
Easing restrictions to allow counties and cities to participate in revenue-sharing and other agreements barred under current law.
Adopting a variety of neighborhood programs to encourage residential and commercial development, including raising the ceiling on tax credits for business development in Enterprise Zones and expanding local governments' authority to correct blighted conditions in poor neighborhoods.
Extending for one year the life of a commission on state and local taxing authority with an eye to addressing imbalances between services localities provide and revenues available to them.
The goals, said Norfolk City Manager James B. Oliver Jr., are to promote economic growth for the entire state, to create ``win-win'' situations between counties and cities, and to make some fundamental changes in the ways Virginia's localities interrelate.
``We have moved past the problem stage, though problem denial remains attractive as an option,'' said Oliver. ``We have even moved past our name,'' he said, suggesting a more inclusive purpose than ``urban partnership'' suggests.
Major suburban counties and cities apparently remain unconvinced, however. Officials in Fairfax and Roanoke, as well as Henrico and Chesterfield counties that rim Richmond have indicated their opposition to the incentive fund.
At a work session in early November, members of the Virginia Beach City Council unanimously opposed additional financial investments in the partnership.
``I don't see this process going in a direction that I see as favorable to Virginia Beach,'' said Councilman Louis R. Jones. ``I have trouble agreeing to spend money to lobby for something I don't agree with.''
``For the city of Virginia Beach, this is a dangerous document,'' said Harold Heischober.
KEYWORDS: REGIONALISM ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT by CNB