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R-02-13 A RESOLUTION CONCERNING SUPPORT FOR EFFORTS OF THE VIRGINIA FIRST CITIES COALITION TO IMPROVE TIlE FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT. WHEREAS, Portsmouth is one of the oldest and most vital urban cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, is intimately tied to much of Virginia's history from colonial times to the present, contributes immeasurably to the Commonwealth's social, spiritual, and historic fabric, yet bears disproportionate social burdens of the Commonwealth and has disproportionate economic resources with which to meet those burdens; and WHEREAS, the Constitution of Virginia provides that all cities are subdivisions of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and that they may exercise only such powers and enjoy such revenues as are from time to time authorized by the General Assembly of Virginia, consistent with the Constitution of Virginia; and WHEREAS, it is the duty of the Commonwealth of Virginia, acting primarily through the General Assembly, to provide adequate powers and resources for all Virginia localities to meet their responsibilities to the public, for the benefit of all Virginia citizens; WHEREAS, there is a growing disparity between the revenues the state provides to all localities, particularly including urban cities such as Portsmouth, and the mandates and transfer of responsibilities the state places on local govemment, which disparity has been further exacerbated by the state's restrictions on the authority of localities to generate revenues; and WHEREAS, the current state-city relationship has not kept pace either with a changing economy, with best business and management practices, or with the needs of the citizens of Virginia, particularly in the areas of education and transportation; and WHEREAS, it is the citizens of Virginia who are most genuinely at risk became of this increasingly dysfunctional fiscal relationship between the state and its localities; WHEREAS, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission ("JLARC") has recently issued reports on the inadequacy of state support for education and transportation; and WHEREAS, the state periodically governs public education and sets the Standards of Quality ("SOQ"), which are the base standards that all public elementary and secondary schools must meet; and WHEREAS, JLARC found that the state typically pays about forty percent of public elementary and secondary school costs and less than fifty-five percent of the costs of the minimum standards; and WHEREAS, JLARC further found that localities have valid reasons to be concerned about their level of responsibility for educational costs; and WHEREAS, the lack of adequate state funding for education causes the City of