Regional Equity Forum

Last night, at the venerable Arts and Lecture at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Youngstown at historic Wick Park, Mayor Jay Williams of Youngstown, Mayor Mike Lyons of the Village of Richfield, Mahoning River Redevelopment Director Dan Mamula, Governor Strickland’s regional representative Arne Clebone, and Youngstown’s regional revenue sharing director, Sarah Lown all spoke about the importance and challenges of regional cooperation. Most enlightening were the case studies from other cities and communities and the highlights of the benefits they’ve achieved.

I blogged last night about some of those case studies ,over at Reason, where it won’t be long before the local grumps start pissing all over my comments board about how Youngstown should leave the suburbs alone and just die already. This is challenge number one. Even though the virtual Local news page is a weak reverse-chronological list, where last night’s meeting showed up in the eleventh spot and without a picture to draw attention to it, the usual crowd of naysayers already started calling names: “Mayor Jay was part of the community-cooperation panel? Mr. Community-UNCOOPERATION himself with his JEDD with water for income tax blackmail scheme?”

So, I called them out, “[W]here were you last night? . . . Wal-Mart is the one who insists on special treatment. Mayor Williams is following the rules and working to fulfill his duty to his constituents. . . . It’s time we expected businesses to do their due diligence and stop expecting special treatment. Yes, they bring employment. But they’re only a business because we bring them the business.”

I thought the turnout last night was great. And I was glad to see the Vindicator giving prominent Local-section placement to the event. Of course, it’s always humorous to see what trumps the most important issues of the day. The 540-word coverage of the regional-cooperation forum was dwarfed by a 1,000-word feature on how those darn kids just love to text. Hey, I’m no dummy; I bet each of those kid’s parents bought several copies to send to their relatives.

So, back to regionalism and some successful models:
Twin Cities Fiscal Disparity Program: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota

• Most comprehensive, in operation since 1971
• Program embraces seven counties and many taxing jurisdictions
• Contributions to revenue pools are based on growth in commercial and industrial property tax
• Program is credited with creating equality, reducing competition for tax bases and supporting regional land use planning

Allegheny Regional Asset District: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Region

• Promotes economic development and improvement in equity across political jurisdticions with specific attention to core cities
• Funded by an additional 1% county sales tax
• Tax revenues are divided three ways: 50% support regional cultural and recreational assets, 25% goes to county government and 25% is shared with municipal governments

Montgomery County ED/GE Program: Dayton, Ohio Region

• Program has two components: an economic development component in which 70 percent of the funds are distructed through a grant process back to participating communities and a government equity fund, which uses more sophisticated formulats to distribute funds and ensure greater equity among jurisdictions
• Funded by a 0.5% increase in the county sales tax to a total of 6.5%

The success of these programs and the breadth of approaches and solutions offered in the wide-ranging study discussed at last night’s meeting are encouraging and show promise for our area’s particular needs. If you’re looking for more ideas and coverage of communities thinking regionally, click on over to the Regional Communities blog. Tom Christoffel publishes it from the Shenandoah Valley area and sent me a nice note recently.

More ways to–as Tom says–”Think Local Planet, Act Regionally”:

1. Read Phase I of the 16-county study on regionalization (cited above) at http://www.revenuestudy.org
2. Read the Mahoning Valley Metropatterns Study, copy available at Mahoning County and YSU public library or from ACTION (330) 518-6970
3. Attend the Summit for Restoring Prosperity in Ohio on September 10 in Columbus. Bus seats available for $10. Register at greaterohio.org. For bus info call (330) 618-6971. Read the Restoring Prosperity Study at www.brookings.edu.
4. Attend the Gray to Green Festival on September 13, 9-5 at historic Wick Park in Youngstown.
5. Call, write, or E-mail your elected representatives to:
   • Fix it First! Improve and infill in built-up areas that already have water, sewers, and utilities, and is near roads, bridges and folks who want work and nearby stores, not far away shopping malls or big box stores and jobs in former cornfields.
   • Fund Mass Transit. E-mail tim.ryanweb@mail.house.gov
   • Fast Track Trains with passenger service from Pittsburgh to Youngstown to Cleveland to Chicago, linking to regional rail hub. Contact Ohio Rail Development Commission at http://www.dot.oh.us
6. Support the ballot issue to continue funding the Clean Ohio program.
7. Join the Mahoning River Consortium.
8. Buy your food at the local farmers market (which, incidentally, is on today!).

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