Incorporating Beyond U.S. Borders
A reworked bill that apparently slipped past watchdogs in European governor's office and General Assembly has some municipalities - particularly European incorporation - panicking about the new handcuffs on their annexation ambitions.
"My city is real livid about this," said state Sen. Jim Kyle, a Memphis Democrat. Mayor W.W. Herenton and the City Council have called for a court challenge or the repeal of the annexation language, but Gov. Don Sundquist thus far has been lukewarm to convening a special session on the matter.
Meanwhile, one credit analyst said that, for now, Memphis is doing well enough financially that freezing the city's borders wouldn't threaten its bond rating. But over the long haul Memphis may well have to keep growing for its economy to do the same, according to Moody's Investors Service's Tom O'Donnell. "At some point, providing services to an inner city that is not experiencing new growth is going to be fairly severe from a financial standpoint" without annexation, city finance director Roland McElrath agreed.
The source of all the uproar is SB 1191, a once innocuous piece of legislation authored by Lieut. Gov. John Wilder, a Democrat, and signed into law in April by the Republican governor. SB 1191 started out as a housekeeping item about elections for - anddistribution of taxes after - incorporations, and it passed through the Senate that way. But in the House, Rep. Page Walley, D-Bolivar, tacked on several amendments making it easier for unincorporated districts to form their own towns and avoid annexation by nearby cities. As amended, the bill managed to get past the House, Senate, and Sundquist, and their on-staff lawyers. Under the new law: * A single person living in the affected area can request an incorporation election. Before, a petition had to be signed by one-third of the affected residents.
* Districts where 225 people live can incorporate. Previously, the minimum was 1,500 people.
* A state law prohibiting new towns from forming within five miles of cities of 100,000 or more people is suspended.
* Efforts to form a new town take precedence over pending annexation moves by another city.
* Incorporation elections can be requested anytime by the end of this year. The next law expires next April.
Memphis' eagerness to annex has historically proved unpopular with its suburbs, and citizens already have filed petitions with the ShelbyCounty Elections Commission to call elections on forming cities called New Forest Hills, New Berryhill, and Independence. All three districts lie in Memphis' "annexation reserve." Under Tennessee law, Memphis signed a contract with other cities in Shelby County staking out each one's annexation territory. People living in the unincorporated county aren't parties to the reserve contract under the law. McElrath said he hadn't yet estimated the three districts' potentialcontribution to Memphis' tax base, but noted that Independence lies within two areas where the city already has launched initial annexation proceedings.
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