Minutes 11/10/1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1998 provide some statistical information on the incidence of traffic arrest activity observed by the police on and accidents that had occurred within the past year on Liberty Street. Further discussion then took place among Council Members concerning traffic safety issues in this and others areas within the City. It was evident that the main thoroughfares into and out of the City were the streets on which the highest incidence of speeding occurred. Although the accident statistics on Liberty Street did not indicate a particularly high incidence of accidents Vice-Mayor Teague indicated that he would still refer the problem to the Transportation Safety Commission for their review. Council Member Haskell proposed that Council adopt a resolution, provided by the Virginia Municipal League, which urged the Legislature to restore full funding of liB 599 Funds to localities. After brief discussion and by unanimous vote, all members voting, (5-Ayes--Crabtree, Teague, Dallas, Haskell and Roop; 0-Nayes) Council approved the following Resolution: RESOLUTION HB 599 Funding WHEREAS, the General Assembly passed HB 599 in 1979 as part of a legislative package intended to direct additional state financial assistance to cities in exchange for the loss of authority to annex land in surrounding counties; and WHEREAS, one type of state financial assistance included in HB 599 was payment to cities, towns and counties with police departments, which was intended to compensate for the disparity between state funding for local police departments and sheriffs' offices; and WHEREAS, the Virginia Code directs the Governor and the General Assembly to increase the total amount of liB 599 funds to be distributed each year by the anticipated percentage change in state general fund revenues; and WHEREAS, funding for HB 599 was reduced from $80.5 million to less than $67 million in fiscal year 1992, and has remained frozen at that level since 1992; and WHEREAS, based on annual general fund growth rates, the total amount of liB 599 funding would have increased to $151 million by fiscal year 1999 if the state had funded this program in accordance with state law; and WHEREAS, if the state had funded this program in accordance with state law, the City of Martinsville would currently be receiving $637,982 per year from the state instead of $281,976 which it is CUrrently receiving. If the City of Martinsville was receiving the higher amount of funding, it would be abl0 to pay for 10 additional police officers or reduce the real estate tax by seven cents; and