Regional Planning

[tshane250]

What do you all think about the idea of Regional Planning and Metropolitan Tax Base sharing?  Below are a couple of paragraphs from the Local Government Commission website (thanks Rico).

"Regional coordination among local governments as well as business and community leaders is necessary for metropolitan-wide agreement on which lands will be developed, which lands will be left as open space or greenbelt buffer, and priorities for transportation and transit spending. Local governments in metropolitan regions like Minneapolis-St. Paul share property tax revenues among scores of jurisdictions to even the disparities between newer, wealthy suburbs and older, inner-ring communities. Others require local governments across a region to provide a share of the affordable housing needed, so that poverty is not concentrated in any one locale, and low-income residents have access to good schools and jobs, which are often located in far-flung suburbs.

Governments and business in metropolitan areas are also collaborating to promote their region in the global marketplace. In these areas local officials are discouraged from zero-sum competition for big retail businesses that pit one city against another in a race to give away land and other concessions to attract the sales tax generator. The cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, CA pool the sales taxes generated from new shopping centers rather than compete for retail tenants. Even more, savvy leaders in regions understand that to be competitive economically, they must encourage on a regional scale business-friendly elements such as good public schools for a well-educated workforce, research universities developing new technology and innovation, vibrant, walkable city centers, affordable housing, and land use and transportation planning that is livable and offers a high quality of life."

I wrote a paper about Minneapolis/St. Paul's Metropolitan Tax Base sharing program in college.  It may seem a little socialistic to some, but IMO it is a great idea.  It actually takes into consideration that metropolitan areas are essentially one entity that should, nay must work together for the benefit of every city in the metropolitan region.  That seems like a better approach than how things are currently where every city thinks it could exist in complete isolation without the need for other nearby cities, which is complete bull plop IMO.