The Invasion Begins Again!
Less power, less power, less power. It seems to be the on-going motto for some of our state lawmakers as they once again attempt to chip away at the Home Rule Authority of local government! An example is SB 1742 (Bennett) scheduled to be heard by the Senate Community Affairs Committee this afternoon. This bill is a preemption of municipal Home Rule powers relating to transportation concurrency and mitgation of transportation impacts. Specifically the bill:
1. Removes the “Home Rule” protection language included in last year’s SB 360 (which by the way, was sponsored by Senator Bennett)
2. Prohibits cities from imposing more stringent transportation mitigation requirements beyond the minimum standards in state law – Because of course, the state knows much better than the local government what is GOOD for the local government!!
3. For local governments that are not in a Transportation Concurrency Exception Area (TCEA), if an applicant for development pays its proportionate share fees, the city MUST approve the development EVEN IF there are insufficient monies to fully fund the needed transportation improvement. Which begs the question…where is the additional funding supposed to come from? Local taxpayer dollars, or the “money tree” that apparently all cities have growing in abundance!
Our cities and state are faced with serious transportation problems that can only be fixed with the right legislation, the necessary dedicated funding AND some creative implementation of multi-modal transportation. Requiring cities to constantly do more and more with less and less (money and authority) is NOT the solution and will only exacerbate the problem.
