Should Virginia Abolish their Independent Cities?

[CountyTy90]

The Constitution of Virginia was amended to grant independent status to cities in the commonwealth. This means that even if the entire city is surrounded by a county, it is still independent from it. City residents don't pay county taxes, have a road and school system maintained by the city not the county. The independent city (which is not part of the county remember) can even be the county's county seat. Smart huh? Usually, in the smaller cities, the county takes care of court matters, jails, etc. Only the larger cities have their own court system.

Some cities have decided to revert to town status due to economic troubles. South Boston in 1995, Clifton Forge in 2001, and most recently, Bedford in 2013.

By reverting back to town status, the "new" towns get help from the county in the above mentioned areas like education and roads. It really is a win-win; the towns now get county help and the county gets a new tax base.

I think it's out of date that cities are independent now and should just revert back to being part of a county.

Here's an article that goes into detail about Bedford's transition from a city to a town:

http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_5dcbc886-e1e9-11e2-a412-001a4bcf6878.html

I made some maps to show you what it looks like now and what it would look like if cities returned back to counties.

Currently:



And if cities became part of counties:

[CountyTy90]

I would say yes, with a couple of exceptions. Alexandria, Chesapeake, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach should remain their own counties.

Also did you split Richmond and Petersburg in half?   

Yeah I cut those two in half; I've been looking at maps and that seems to be how it was done when they were just towns or when cities were still a part of a county legally.

I understand keeping some of the bigger cities independent, like Richmond and Norfolk. But in the case of Virginia Beach, I think that should go back to Princess Anne County because there are actually a lot of rural areas which I think would benefit from being part of a county as opposed to being in a city. Plus, like I said, it would be a benefit to become a county. Sure, taxes would go up, but then you'd get better quality services.

[CountyTy90]

Is there some quirky historical reason they did this?

In other parts of the country, you see cities merging with counties and ceasing to be separate entities altogether (Louisville, Miami, etc). This is the opposite of it and I don't understand what the benefit would be.

I can't really find a concrete reason as to why they're independent.

And to your last point, I'm not sure why those large cities are consolidating with their county. Miami is different I think, as the city limits of Miami are not contiguous with Miami-Dade County as Louiville and Jefferson County's are or Indianapolis and Marion County's are. Not sure if that makes a difference or not?