SD25 - County-Town Relations
Executive Summary: This study is a follow-up on a recommendation made by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) in its study Towns in Virginia, House Document Number 2, 1986, to the effect the General Assembly might wish to study policy issues affecting towns, particularly town-county relations and town-state relations. Copies of the study resolutions are set out in the Appendix A. Historical Background Initially Virginia made no legal distinction between cities and towns. A formal distinction between cities and towns was introduced, apparently for the first time, in the Virginia Code of 1887. The distinction was based on a population of 5,000 or more and the presence of a court for a city and a population of less than 5,000 for a town. This distinction grew over the years until cities were unofficially recognized as being independent from the surrounding county while towns remained part of the county in which they were located. For many years, the General Assembly created municipal corporations by passing a special act for each separate incorporation. The Constitution of 1902 provided for general laws that would vest in circuit courts of counties the authority to incorporate municipal corporations. In 1908 the General Assembly authorized circuit courts of counties to incorporate towns from unincorporated territory (1908 Acts of Assembly Chapter 308). This act required a potential town to have a population between 200 and 5,000. Virginia presently has 189 towns listed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, two of which are inactive, not having held elections in the last fifteen or more years. The chart set out in Appendix B lists 76 towns formed between 1908 and June 30, 1966, by both the courts and the legislature. This apparently means 113 of the state's present 189 towns were individually incorporated by the legislature prior to 1908. There are also an unknown number of towns that were formed by the General Assembly which for various reasons have ceased to function. These now inactive towns pose a mischievous threat to the local government structure of Virginia in view of the fact an Attorney General's opinion states that such towns can be revived without further legislative action being taken. Appendix C. Governmental Differences As a result of remaining part of the county, residents of towns pay taxes to the county and also to the town, primarily real estate taxes. Many times town residents complain of double taxation. However, for their county taxes they receive the following services: corrections, education, elections, health, judicial, and social services and sometimes solid waste disposal. Then, for the very reason communities were first chartered, i.e. their citizens wanted more extensive services for police, fire, water, sewerage, and recreation, to name a few, town residents pay taxes to their town government. When there exists an overlap in services provided by counties and towns dissatisfaction among town residents increases. Dissatisfaction also occurs because many of the county services that are tax supported, and in fact required by state law, are not normally used by most town residents. Population Distinctions (based on the 1980 United States decennial census) The median population figure for Virginia's towns is 945. Ninety-nine towns have populations under 1,000 persons; however their continued existence is preserved by the state's present Constitution which otherwise requires a town to have a population of 1,000 or more. Appendix D. Virginia's statutory law that applies to towns generally makes no differentiation among the powers and duties of such municipalities based on population. In a few instances towns having a population under 3,500 are treated differently, primarily in the areas of roads and financial reporting. The population differences and locations of Virginia's towns are shown in Appendix E. Basis of Study With this background the joint subcommittee determined that it would not address the population size of Virginia's towns and the evident financial problems size presents nor would it attempt to restructure statutory law to accommodate basic units of local government that are thought to be, in a majority of the towns, governmental units to small to function efficiently and economically. The joint subcommittee notes that two areas of Virginia's statutory laws might be utilized to the benefit of residents of towns under 2,000 in population: (I) consolidation with the county and establishment of a sanitary district that would equal the former town's boundaries. The powers granted to sanitary districts are extensive, almost equal to those that would be exercised by a small town. The joint subcommittee noted Virginia had only 46 towns with populations in excess of 2,000 and decided to concentrate its efforts on them. What are their problems? What might be done to alleviate them? The joint subcommittee was advised by the chairman of the town section of the Virginia Municipal League that the following items were of particular interest to towns: 1. the formula for the distribution of the local option sales tax between counties and towns; 2. double taxation; 3. planning control over land in the county that adjoins a town's boundaries; 4. funding of law-enforcement personnel; and 5. unequal statutory authority among counties, cities and towns. The joint subcommittee elected to address these items. |
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