One Government Best For Area’s Needs Anti-City Three Entities Will Be Fighting For One Tax Base

Should the Valley incorporate? Hey, it could be fun.

Imagine Steve “Cornbread” Hasson as the George Washington figure for a new strong-mayor government.

Or think about the one-ring circus that performs in Spokane’s City Council chambers. If that’s the best a city of 185,000 can produce, imagine what a bedroom community of 73,000 could do, coming up with a City Council of its own and a full slate of laws and bureaucrats and regulations and taxes to match.

We journalists would love it. Bad government makes good copy.

Seriously, though, bad government also has injured this community we all call home. Bickering between the city and county of Spokane has inspired alienation where there could be coordination, weak infrastructure where there could be a higher quality of life. Institutional differences have led to disparities in libraries, parks, fire protection …

With a separate city in the Valley, three governments, instead of two, would fight for tax base and bicker over policy affecting all who reside in the Spokane metropolitan area.

Sure, the area includes distinct neighborhoods. But all of us, after we shed our jobs and head for home, have more in common than we have differences in what we need from local government. Many of us agree we want less government. So why create another one?

Advocates for Valley incorporation conjure up images of downtown conspirators out to deny the Valley its due. Baloney. This isn’t about geography. What all of us want is an efficient, representative structure to mediate the contest common to all local governments, including the new city if it is formed: Government fights to expand, the business sector fights taxes and regulation, while neighborhoods fight for lifestyle preservation.

Some critics of Valley incorporation worry about what a new city would do, over the years, to the tax and regulatory climate. They doubt it would be as cheap as advocates claim, for long. Good point.

But the key issue is whether a single metropolitan area should have one local government or three. With three, each would fight over the same issues, using separate staffs, laws, rules, taxes and leaders, plus they’d fight one another. But with one, as the freeholders will propose to voters in the fall, this community could focus on important issues and leave the bickering behind.

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = EDITORIAL, COLUMN - From both sides CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board