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<br />Taxation and State Spending <br />As the General Assembly will deal with a surplus of state funds, we urge the <br />assembly to examine state needs in transportation, public education, higher <br />education, social services and economic development and determine how best to <br />use those funds before lowering tax rates or eliminating some forms of taxation. <br />The City urges the General Assembly to carefully study any property tax relief <br />proposal for long- and short-term negative effects on municipal budgets and debt <br />capacities. The City philosophically opposes state restrictions on the ability of <br />municipalities to determine levels of taxation and fees needed to provide services <br />demanded by their citizens. We believe the lessons learned by the difficulties <br />implementing the car tax elimination should guide the General Assembly in this <br />matter. <br /> <br />T elecomm unications <br />Virginia cities have rights to provide telecommunications services under state <br />and federal law, and the General Assembly should make no effort to change, <br />undermine or redefine those rights unless to increase cities' abilities to provide <br />low-cost utility service to its citizens. <br />The General Assembly should not change Virginia's methods for calculating <br />telecommunications taxes and surcharges without making such a change <br />revenue-neutral. Cities must maintain rights-of-way and other public property <br />upon which utilities rely for access to customers, and those utilities should be <br />responsible - through taxes and franchise fees - for providing funds to perform <br />that maintenance. <br /> <br />Community Development & Community Services <br />The City of Martinsville's zoning does not permit the installation of single- <br />wide, double-wide or otherwise permanently wheeled manufactured housing. The <br />city opposes any bill, such as has previously been introduced, that would require <br />the permitted zoning of any such depreciatory housing stock in the city. <br />The City strongly supports the continued use of Community Development <br />Block Grants as a method to reduce urban blight, restore blighted neighborhoods <br />and revitalize residential and commercial areas of cities. <br />Citizens of the Commonwealth deserve responsive community services with <br />facilities adequate to provide privacy of interviews, records storage and access. <br />We urge the General Assembly to provide financial assistance to localities in <br />developing adequate facilities for social services, employment services, health <br />services and other health and welfare contact points. <br /> <br />Local Initiatives, Referenda and Employees <br />The City of Martinsville opposes any effort by one local government to force a <br />binding referendum about any issue on any other local government. We believe <br />this is poor policy, setting a poor precedent by removing decision-making <br />authority vested in elected officials by voters. <br />If the General Assembly sees fit to force a binding referendum on any <br />government at the request of another, we believe the General Assembly should <br />