Sharpe's Opinion
Tuesday, 24th Feb, 2009
Still catching up on blogs I’ve missed over the past week or so, here’s Raedwald on localism, looking at the town of Vail, Colorado:
Vail has a town manager and a town council of seven members of no discernible political affiliation. It runs its own police force of 31 constables and 32 support personnel, its own fire service which operates out of two fire stations and has five pump appliances and a ladder appliance. The town provides affordable housing for Vail residents, a library, maintains all streets and public works, waste, parks, tourism, licensing of premises for alcohol and the panoply of local municipal services. It manages planning and building control functions and environmental health. Oh yes, and it runs a free year-round bus service within the town and a subsidised service to surrounding hamlets and communities.
Most of the town’s income comes from a local sales tax. Tourist hotel rates attract 9.8%, all other sales 8.4%. Of this, Vail gets 4% with the balance going to the County (Eagle County) and the State (Colorado). There’s also commercial income from parking and permits, and a local construction tax that helps fund affordable housing. The town’s finances are in good shape with healthy balances and a good proportion devoted to capital expenditure.
I’m not sure proper localism would ever work in Britain: the British are quite simply too jealous of those who lead better lives than we do. If largely self-supporting communities like Vail cropped up around Britain, complaints would immediately ensue about a ‘post code lottery’, and neighbouring communities would start demanding ‘equality’.