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R-04-07 JOINT RESOLUTION WHEREAS, the City of Portsmouth has a unique financial challenge among the localities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in that over 56% of its land area is tax exempt; and WHEREAS, the City is also adversely affected by many of the same problems confronting Virginia's older cities, such as lower average incomes, a reduced commercial and industrial base, and a numerically-declining and aging population; and WHEREAS, due to the level of poverty among Portsmouth's citizens and despite the best efforts of the Portsmouth school division and others, children in the City of Portsmouth enter school with fewer and lower educational skills than their peers in other more-affluent areas; and WHEREAS, Portsmouth akeady has the highest real property tax rate in the Hampton Roads area and few other available revenue-producing means; and WHEREAS, the quality of education in the City of Portsmouth has suffered as the City Council has attempted to address the needs of all of its citizens; and WHEREAS, the federal No Child Left Behind Act has placed additional and unprecedented financial and performance demands on the City; and WHEREAS. the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) has, on a number of occasions, stated that the Commonwealth of Virginia has not met its obligations with respect to the funding of education throughout the Commonwealth; and WHEREAS, because of the concemration of federal Department of Defense installations that occupy a large area of the City, the rate of federal contributions to City expenses is even lower than if the land had been occupied by other federal agencies; and WHEREAS, the Commonwealth of Virginia is using federal and local funds to fund the Commonwealth's own Standards of Quality. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Council and the School Board of the City of Portsmouth that they appeal to the Governor and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia that the Commonwealth of Virginia Standards of Quality be funded with state ftmds. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor and the General Assembly are additionally requested to provide the City of Portsmouth, tkroUgh whatever means available, with relief from the City's severe fiscal challenges that would not exist except for the unique and overwhelmingly negative effects of the tax exempt nature of such a large portion of the City's land area and facilities.