South Valley Incorporation

The Journal provides a  presumptive headline stating that South Valley incorporation is moving ahead because Representative Miguel Garcia got more funding and contracted for some analysis.  Paperwork will be drafted.  Passionate people will repeat half-truths one both sides.  It will move ahead.      

Mike Ciesielski, a South Valley resident and a member of an advisory committee working with Garcia on incorporation issues, said the South Valley should have the power to determine issues such as education, planning and public safety.  "Two words: self- governance," Ciesielski said. "We want the legitimate authority that goes along with a municipality to determine what we're going to look like."

Two words: Good Luck. 

Legitimate authority is a funny term, especially used in context with what things will look like.  Somebody should disavow proponents of this notion right away.  Incorporation is no magic planning pill or solution to corrupt or apathetic leadership.  And let's start talking costs, not just tax base.   

Besides getting people riled up, this may be effective in getting some good questions asked about costs.  Good questions about public service costs were what caused the sh*tstorm over the Planned Growth Strategy.   The numbers were  big and some don't like hearing them. 

And the existing governments that incorporation proponents don't think much of, won't go away.  The layers are additive.  Most of the services that already exist will require contracting or purchase. That can get ugly.

Fragmented, self-interested, multiple local governments are out-sized by regional issues.   Developers outsize governments.  Parochialism kills planning.  Poof.   

 

Comments

[suz]

If you're looking for a solution to some of SV's woes: two words - Eric Griego

[Hunter]

I wouldn't be so quick to skip over the "tax base" analysis. SunCal may very well have paid several thousand dollars per acre for much of the land within the proposed incorporation area, but after "agricultural assessments" the land is functionally worthless for tax purposes. It would be ironic if the very "rural lifestyle" that some proponents are trying to preserve was the source of an insufficient tax base.

However, the additive nature of self-rule cannot be over-emphasized. County to City of South Valley, you fix Isleta Blvd, you pay for the community centers and swimming pools, animal control, libraries, police, fire, etc., etc., etc.

And where did the idea come from that incorporation automatically includes your own school district?