Council To Discuss City Goals, Requests To State Leaders

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Williamsburg’s city council will discuss the city’s first draft of the biennial Goals, Initiatives and Outcomes (GIO) proposal at its Thursday afternoon meeting, and council members will also vote on whether to adopt a list of requests of the state legislature.

 

The GIO lays out the city’s goals over the next two years, and the current draft (with 76 initiatives under 10 goal areas) was compiled after a joint meeting of the council and the planning commission in mid-September. Input was also garnered from a community workshop in September and an online open forum.

 

The draft is organized into 10 areas: community engagement, which includes ideas on improving city and college relations; city character, which includes development of visions for various city areas and redevelopment areas; economic vitality; neighborhoods and housing; transportation; public safety; education and human services; recreation and culture; environmental sustainability; and city organizational leadership.

Council is set to review the proposed GIOs at their November 1 work session. The public can review the draft, see the schedule of meetings and comment on the plan on the city’s GIO website.

Council is also set to vote on 13 priorities for the upcoming state legislative session.

Most of the items on the current list of wishes are holdovers from previous years, such as keeping funding for areas of importance including schools, constitutional officers, human services, public safety, the regional jail, the state health department and mental health services, and street maintenance.

Also on the list is a request to limit restrictions on local revenue control such as tax rate caps, changes in real estate assessments or restrictions on revenue spending; funding for transportation improvements and passenger rail; and funding for interstate 64 widening.

The city has included requests for increased tourism funding and a state requirement that internet travel reservation companies pay tax on the retail cost of a hotel room versus the wholesale cost.

Pay day lending reform is on the priority list, with the city suggesting a 36 percent annual interest rate cap on these types of loans.

This year, the city is requesting state code be changed so the Virginia State Business Financing Authority can no longer compete with local economic development authorities to issue tax exempt bonds to non-profits.

The city would also like the state to stop the Virginia Retirement System payment deferral and to no longer use this as a way to balance the state budget.

The draft of priorities contains requests from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for increased tourism funding, transportation support and passenger rail service, and a request from William and Mary for funding support for the Integrated Science Center ($85 million) and Tucker Hall renovations ($12.1 million).

Finally, the city opposes changes to the Freedom of Information Act which would require the mandatory disclosure of full criminal records.

Council will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Stryker building. The public can view the entire agenda and related documents on the city’s website.