Ohio Region Looks At Sharing Taxes, Land Planning

摘要

A Rust Belt region is seriously considering radical solutions to its sliding fortunes: regional planning of new growth and sharing the taxes that result. More than 50 elected leaders in a 16-county region of Northeast Ohio-including Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown-voted in mid-May to pursue a plan similar to one in the Twin Cities. The effort springs from the Northeast Ohio Mayors and City Managers Association, which recently launched a $ 135,000 study of tax-sharing strategies. Northeast Ohio has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent decades, and the region's population-just over four million-grew less than five percent between 1970 and 2000, according to U.S. Census data. At the same time, the amount of developed land grew by 60 percent. Suburbs fostered that sprawl by offering tax incentives for companies looking to locate in the area. Increasingly, civic leaders have decried those winner-take-all battles that pit cities against one another, prompting the mayors group to study ways to share tax revenue from new growth. But the focus on tax sharing quickly shifted to land-use planning. Communities wouldn't support sharing taxes unless they had a voice in how and where growth in the region occurs, officials realized.