A city of Christiansburg isn’t a crazy idea
Christiansburg Town Council last week took the first step toward becoming an independent city. If the idea has legs, things could get very interesting very quickly.
An independent city?
Frustration with Montgomery County was clear at Tuesday’s meeting. Council members feel the town provides a lot to the relationship but receives little in return.
That view is justified to some extent.
Continue reading this editorial.
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Christiansburg should attain city status, allowing responsibility and accountability for a clear path for citizen’s betterment. It would be great to end the tanglements of faltering county leadership, or lack of.
May the county ‘circus’ be ended, please. Woe unto those left behind, including Blacksburg.
Comment by Know Nothing — May 20, 2012 @ 9:44 am
I think the City of CHristiansburg is a great idea. Good Luck moving forward!
Comment by Philip — May 21, 2012 @ 7:51 am
It is time for Christiansburg to become a city. I hope momentum builds for this fantastic idea!
Comment by Joel — May 21, 2012 @ 4:44 pm
KnowNothing, why would that be woe unto B’burg? Sense B’burg comprises the largest share of the county’s tax base, it would benefit B’burg to have C’burg withdraw its demand on the revenue pool.
Comment by E William — May 21, 2012 @ 6:02 pm
E William,
What exactly is it you think Christiansburg draws from the revenue pool that isn’t covered by it’s own contribution to the real estate, sales tax and merchants capital tax revenues?
But hey, if you think the County and Blacksburg can absorb the loss of all tax revenue from Christiansburg with no diminution of services, I guess it would be better for everyone.
Comment by Chuck — May 22, 2012 @ 6:06 pm
Day late and a dollar or two short. When county board of supervisors drew up the redistricting plan it was totally weighted toward Blacksburg even though all of the growth had been in Christiansburg. So now the county board has four districts that are weighted toward Blacksburg when it should be the other way around. Christiansburg leaders did nothing to change that and sat on their hands. Now they want to move to a city government when they can barely manage themselves as a town. With city status comes more taxing power but also more costs, like schools and roads. How are they going to fund those when they could barely manage construction of the town pool? Please! Heck, council didn’t even know what its own personnel policies where when Lance took them for a ride on his pension.
Comment by Ghost of Alexander Hamilton — May 22, 2012 @ 11:42 pm
Christiansburg and Blacksburg together support Montgomery County. You pull one of them out and that puts a ton of stress on the other to support the county residence in the smaller communities. A city means funding your own school system – does the county simply turn over the schools in the Christiansburg strand? Christiansburg generates a ton of tax revenue from sales tax – 1% of the 5% sales tax goes to the county so that would go to Christiansburg and with the vast majority of retail they would keep a substantial amount of the county revenue. Blacksburg I would think generates a lot of property taxes to support the school system – and also has a lot of restaurants and hotels that generate a lot of revenue. Christiansburg breaking away might not be very cost effective. Of course the VT restaurants and hotel do not help the county or Town of Blacksburg since they are the only University in Virginia that doesn’t contribute any tax dollars to the local community that host them. They collect only state taxes.
Comment by James — May 23, 2012 @ 1:26 am
I think it makes sense for Cburg to form a city, although the leadership would have to become much more sophisticated to handle the extra load of providing schools, in particular. Not sure who would attend Cburg schools, but presumably only those within town limits. Would shift some students to Auburn, Eastmont and Blacksburg. Biggest change would be that the county would then essentially be Blacksburg. This would likely harm residents outside of Blacksburg, like in Riner and Shawsville.
Comment by NRJMike — May 23, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
Be careful what you wish for. Several Independent Cities in Virginia have “un-citied” themselves in recent years due to the high cost of operating a ‘duplicate’ government within a region. Once you go “city” (a small city like Cburg) you actually lose access to a great deal of funding due to a drop in population. Christiansburg as a part of Montgomery County benefits in education, transportation and other funding due to the combination of Cburg, Bburg and Montco population figures. It goes independent and you go from nearly 95,000 to 23,000 as a measurable population. Then there are any benefits from shared town-county operations. The “city” has to take those on as their own. As a point of parochial pride – yes, it sounds good. As point of reality there are many pitfalls of going it on your own. And with the school funding ‘fight’ we’ve seen…once Christiansburg City residents have to fund their own schools – your tax burden will skyrocket.
Comment by LOVE NRV — May 24, 2012 @ 8:09 am
“Woe to those left behind, including Blacksburg”? You can move on if you like, we’re just fine. With the largest share of the county population, the most valued real estate, the highest paying jobs and still being a part of the County school system we will benefit if Christiansburg’s portion of the pot is no longer needed. The City of Christiansburg will see its tax rates triple in order pay for their City Schools, their City Infrastructure and their City Fire and Police departments. It is the ‘city’ that must go it alone. Blacksburg and Montgomery County will still be classified and accessible to funding based on the roughly 75,000 “non-city” residents while Christiansburg City will only be able to apply for funds based on their 22,000 (approx). residents. I’d just say: Be careful what you wish for. As someone else here pointed out there are several cities in Virginia that have reverted to town status in recent years because the cost of running as an independent city is outrageous. It begs the question why Christiansburgers hate the rest of us so much?! We rather enjoy you…what gives?
Comment by Fact Checker — May 24, 2012 @ 8:13 am
It is good for Christiansburg people to go through this process of weighting their options and search their hearts to see what are the most important issues.
At the end, I think they will come to the conclusion that some of us already know. We are stronger when we stand united. There are more resources, more benefits for Christiansburg to remain in Montgomery County. If Christiansburg trys to duplicate all the services she receives from the county now, the tax will only go up and the services will definitely go down. There will always be allocating issues, but Montgomery county is beautiful and strong. Let’s work together. Don’t divide us!
Comment by Local Gal — May 25, 2012 @ 10:34 pm
Is there some way we could hold a public vote to remove Blacksburg from Montgomery County?
Comment by Jim Overfelt — May 26, 2012 @ 11:45 am
The County Board of Supervisors and County Administration have riled MANY citizens. People should run for the seats and the front office at the Government Center needs to go. The Town of Christiansburg becoming a city is not the right move. I live in the Town of Christiansburg and I do not like paying so many taxes to both. I have to pay my fair share, however, better leadership and decisions need to come from the County.
Comment by J. Martin — May 31, 2012 @ 11:19 am
For the love of Pete does the county not think we pay enough taxes as it is? We will be paying for a courthouse (that we needed like we need another cornhole) until Till God knows when. Can the Board of stupidvisors not think of anything better to do for the citizens of montgomery than to squander more money on such ridicules notions? We are already suffocated by our government who seems to forget we could use a break to catch our breathe! comment by Inhale
Comment by Patricia — June 29, 2012 @ 4:19 am