Regionalization on the menu
By MARLY KOSINSKI Tribune ChronicleFact Box
Meeting
- The Regionalization Collaboration Conference will be held from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Boardman Holiday Inn on South Avenue.
The Regional Economic Revenue Study was released in May. Some of its main points about northeast Ohio include:
- Job and income growth in the region have trailed the nation and other comparable metropolitan areas for decades;
- The region continues to consume previously undeveloped land despite that fact that its population is not growing.
- The ability of local areas to finance local public services varies dramatically from place to place; and
- The region shows some of the highest rates of segregation by race and income in the nation.
BOARDMAN - Regionalization will be the focus Friday as Mahoning Valley officials gather at the Regional Collaboration Conference.
The event is being sponsored by Aqua Ohio, but was coordinated by the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. Tony Paglia, the chamber's vice president of government affairs, said the breakfast and conference at the Holiday Inn is the third in a series of events aimed at promoting regional collaboration.
"The chamber continues its efforts to promote regional collaboration in the Mahoning Valley to foster effective and efficient government services, save taxpayers money and promote collaborative efforts among communities to improve economic development opportunities," Paglia said in a phone interview Sunday.
He said the conference is aimed at government and school officials from Mahoning and Trumbull counties, but other interested parties also will be in attendance, including chamber representatives, League of Women Voters representatives and community leaders.
The first session is entitled "Local Governments, Regional Economy: Fostering Collaborations that Strengthen Government and Our Competitiveness." It will be presented by Laura Steinbrink, director of regional partnerships of the Fund for Our Economic Future in Cleveland.
The Fund for Our Economic Future, founded in 2004, unites philanthropy in northeast Ohio to help strengthen the region's economic competitiveness through grantmaking, research and civic engagement.
More than 100 foundations, organizations and individuals have contributed more than $60 million to the fund, which is in its second, three-year phase of work.
The fund defines northeast Ohio as Trumbull, Mahoning, Ashtabula, Columbiana, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Ashland,Carroll, Lake, Lorain and Wayne counties.
The second session is entitled "Regional Economic Revenue Study" and will be presented by representatives of the Northeast Ohio Mayors and City Managers Association. Warren Mayor Michael J. O'Brien will introduce the panel, which includes Hudson Mayor William Currin, Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers and Richfielf Mayor Mike Lyons.
The Regional Economic Revenue Study was released in May. Its introduction acknowledges the growing awareness of community leaders in northeast Ohio that unending competition between local governments for real estate, income and other tax revenues significantly hinders the ability for the region to compete nationally and internationally.
"The current system hinders our capacity as a region to attract and retain business economic development, encourages inappropriate and wasteful development patterns, and creates inefficiencies in government operations," the study states.
The study also states that analysis of demographic and fiscal trends in northeast Ohio show how uncoordinated, inefficient development and competition for tax base are threatening every community in the region.
The conference then will focus on Mahoning and Trumbull counties separately. Poland Township trustee Robert Lidle will lead the Mahoning County Metro Leaders Roundtable, and Vienna trustee Phil Pegg will outline the newly revived Trumbull County Council of Governments.
There also will be a panel on police consolidation. Ernie Cook, chief deputy for the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office, also will participate in the discussion.
Each session will be followed by a question-and-answer period, according to an agenda provided by Pegg.
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pahootaman
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09-22-08 8:01 AM
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I agree OldManGrum2, regionalization does require local leaders to share certain powers for the betterment of the region. For the longest time, Cleveland it's it's inner and outer ring suburbs have been tossing the subject, but not really getting anywhere with it. On paper it sounds good. In a regional government, you'll have better allocation of police and fire fighting services and generally you'll have better spreading out of certain utilities. But regionalism also creates this great "flattening out" of certain things, like tax revenue. Certain communities that were better off in tax revenues will be seeing less but poorer communities will be seeing more. You also need to get all local leaders involved. It's hard to start something up like this if it's not a unanimous decision.
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OldManGrump2
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09-22-08 7:14 AM
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Regionalization won't work if Youngstown's Mayor Jay Williams is involved. He's a Youngstown First mayor who tries to blackmail the suburbs around him to pay for his city with income tax for water blackmail. Mayor Williams is the reason regionalization is dead in the Mahoning Valley. Look what he did to upset the Liberty Walmart project timing, and the Austintown/Boardman blackmail water for income tax proposal that's now headed to court.
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