Thursday, September 18, 2003

By Bill Toland, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG -- Two state lawmakers want to give Pennsylvania boroughs and cities, including Pittsburgh, a chance to dissolve themselves.

State Reps. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon, and Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, are now seeking support for the measure, which they plan to introduce next month.

Currently, there's no provision in state law that allows towns that are struggling financially to disincorporate. Pennsylvania is one of just four states that doesn't permit the existence of unincorporated communities -- that is, towns with no local council or tax-collecting authority.

The upcoming bill is similar to a dissolution bill that Stevenson introduced in 2001. That measure, which had 20 co-sponsors, never got out of committee, but Stevenson said he believes the General Assembly may be more accommodating this time around.

"I think eventually, when people see, my God, we're going to tax ourselves out of existence, that's when we'll get the support we need," Stevenson said. "With [Pittsburgh's] problems, that's helped."

Last session's bill would have essentially created a pilot program for Allegheny County, letting the county's townships and boroughs, except for Pittsburgh, dissolve and become absorbed by the county.

The bill would have allowed governments to disincorporate either by a referendum vote or through a petition signed by 67 percent or more of a municipality's voters.

The community then would be governed by County Council, as well as a five-member administrative board. After a community dissolves, it could choose to remain unincorporated or merge with a neighbor.

The new bill will contain some significant changes, Stevenson said. First, it will permit all Pennsylvania municipalities -- not just those in Allegheny County -- to dissolve.

Second, it would require that a referendum vote take place only during presidential or gubernatorial election years, to ensure that a community doesn't dissolve itself during an election year with traditionally low voter turnout.

Third, it's including Pittsburgh in the mix. Pittsburgh, if it voted to do so, would become an unincorporated urban district within Allegheny County.

That's the most radical feature of a bill that was considered just a bit too radical in its first go-round.

"People are starting to talk about it more, merging the city and county," Stevenson said, citing this week's comments from the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which urged the Legislature to investigate whether a consolidation of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County governments is possible, or sensible.

Stevenson and Frankel plan to troll for additional co-sponsors over the next few weeks.

"I think [consolidation] is the future of Allegheny County generally," Frankel said. "These issues are resounding with Western Pennsylvania."

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