ANALYSIS: The Pros & Cons Of A Metro Government For Tuscaloosa County

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Patch spoke with numerous individuals in elected office or administration in Tuscaloosa County and across the spectrum — mostly on background or informed by past reporting — to get the best ideas of the pros and cons of such a decision, with decent arguments made for both approaches.

THE PROS

In this reporter’s experience, one of the only things that Tuscaloosa County, Northport and the City Tuscaloosa can agree on is that they rarely agree on anything.

Be it operational responsibilities for the Tuscaloosa County Park & Recreation Authority, school systems or even funding for the Tuscaloosa Public Library, area leaders across the county have often found themselves at odds regarding shared responsibilities for the range of services used by residents from across the metro.

Still, some view a metro form of government as the panacea to unite the county.

Indeed, one source said in a utopian world where everything goes off without a hitch, the combination of services could, in theory, take the best of both cities and the county, and provide a better product overall for taxpayers.

While there are no metro governments as of yet in the state of Alabama, one elected official pointed out that the system has worked well in cities such as Jacksonville, Florida (population: 954,614), and Louisville, Kentucky (population: 628,594).

What’s more, the argument was made that a metro government could save money, consolidate bureaucracy and improve resources, especially for schools.

Tuscaloosa County is growing at an unprecedented rate, as reflected in the results of the 2020 U.S. Census. And this has not come without its growing pains when considering the relationships of the three governmental bodies.

Indeed, tempers always seem to flare when there is interaction over any issue.

All three governmental bodies exert more resources and have bigger budgets than ever before.

So, a metro government could, in theory, provide less government with better results if all the public resources are pooled together and given more streamlined oversight.

In an overwhelmingly conservative-voting county, this proposal might find support among those tired of watching the power struggle between the three bodies and wishing for more efficient government to serve a growing metropolitan area.

It’s worth noting that this is a long-haul measure and not one likely to be decided upon anytime soon. Multiple sources told Patch Sen. Allen also said there was much more research to be done before truly knowing if such a system would be the right thing for the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Attempts to contact Sen. Allen for comment have been unsuccessful as of the publication of this story, which will be updated accordingly if provided a response.

THE CONS

After extensive conversations with policymakers, private citizens and local elected officials, the list of potential drawbacks appears to be much longer than the positives.

Depending on who you ask, there are numerous concerns, so I’ll start with the big-picture political view.

For starters, if Allen’s measure becomes reality, both the cities of Northport and Tuscaloosa would lose the power to raise sales and use taxes by a simple vote of their respective city councils. This could make life difficult for the two growing cities with large-scale capital projects in the works.

Northport, especially, showed no stomach for any kind of tax increases at the ballot box when a property tax increase was voted down 80%-20% on Valentines Day — the revenue of which would largely have gone to capital investments in schools north of the river.

Still, initiatives like Elevate Tuscaloosa and Northport First — both 1-cent increases to the sale tax rate for both cities — have proven a successful when raising money for desired capital projects.

But if a metro government is established, this decision would be left solely up to the electorate, which can be a pro or a con depending on how one looks at it.

Still, Tuscaloosa County is a diverse and complex place when comparing its two largest municipalities and the outlying parts of the county. Keep in mind, this doesn’t include the menagerie of other incorporated places with elected officials in places like Brookwood and Lake View.

Would those offices be rendered completely useless?

What’s more, how will this impact a growing multi-jurisdictional gray area like Lake View, with city limits extending past the Tuscaloosa County line?

When considering worrisome potential impacts, though, a key example can be found with the City of Tuscaloosa, which is on track to eventually become a majority-minority government. This can be seen when considering that former Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Mayor Walt Maddox and progressive Council President Kip Tyner will inevitably no longer be in office.

As numerous sources of different political stripes have pointed out, the eventual departure of the two longtime elected figures from office is likely to open the door to minority representation in the two offices.

Indeed, Tyner has been one of the most popular politicians in the city’s history, representing a majority-Black council district that includes Alberta City — the place where he grew up and where he is one of the most recognizable and celebrated faces in the district.

And while Maddox has crafted one of the most powerful local political machines in all of the southeast, winning the mayor’s office in Tuscaloosa is practically impossible without securing a sizable portion of the African-American electorate.

Meanwhile, the Tuscaloosa County Commission and the Northport City Council are squarely conservative with a White majority in the electorate and in terms of representation on the two elected bodies. For two elected bodies with so much power and growing revenues, it’s worth noting that there is more minority representation just on the Tuscaloosa City Council than the Tuscaloosa County Commission and the Northport City Council combined.

So, if Allen’s amendment proves successful and establishes a metro government, the county’s overall demographics would dictate that the governing body for the entire metro would have a makeup similar to the current Tuscaloosa County Commission — four conservative White elected officials and one Black elected official, representing a county of over 200,000 people.

A 75% to 25% system at the county level does not a representative democracy make for residents inside the Tuscaloosa city limits, whose population rivals that of the rest of the surrounding metro.

Following extensive arguments over reapportionment when district lines were redrawn following the 2020 Census, a metro government would likely prove problematic when it comes to accurate representation for a diverse place like the City of Tuscaloosa.

While it is not mentioned in the amendment what exactly a metro council would look like, the advisory council to lay the ground work for the system would consist of four members appointed by the Tuscaloosa County probate judge, four approved by the mayor of Tuscaloosa and two approved by the mayor of Northport.

This reporter thinks quite highly of each of the three White men holding executive office across the different governmental bodies. There’s no doubt each of the men, despite representing a kind of hegemony, each are sensitive to issues of diversity and racial equality. Despite any range of individual political beliefs, Probate Judge Rob Robertson, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox and Northport Mayor John Hinton are each thoughtful, accessible leaders who do what they belief is best for the people who elected them.

But it’s worth noting that, at the earliest, this new system won’t be in place until the 2040s — so, much can change, especially considering a conservative countywide majority in the population outside of everywhere other than the metro’s most densely populated municipality inhabited by a majority of liberal voters.

In the end, it’s all going to come down to fair representation at all levels and how much of a premium elected officials place on political autonomy at the municipal level.

It’s also a Herculean undertaking that all of our sources closest to the situation have said will have to be extensively researched before it even becomes a possibility — a notion Allen reportedly conveyed during the last meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama’s Public Affairs Committee when he mentioned the amendment to his colleagues and other area business leaders.

But for those pointing fingers at Allen as the sole mastermind for such a measure, this reporter can’t help but speculate and consider the words of Sinclair Lewis in saying that the longtime Republican lawmaker is simply the lightest cork at the top of the whirlpool.

Decisions of this size simply don’t originate from one person.

And to Allen’s credit, he did inform his colleagues in the Tuscaloosa County legislative delegation of his proposed amendment prior to it being formally introduced.

This after Allen drew the ire of area lawmakers and several Chamber members after not telling them in advance about a resolution since signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey to rename the interstate bridge that spans McFarland Boulevard to the Luther Stancel Pate III Memorial Bridge for the father of Tuscaloosa developer and political kingmaker Stan Pate.

The situation for Northport, however, is wholesale different from the worries of those in the City of Tuscaloosa.

For example, Northport has grown rapidly over the last decade and managed to pull itself back from the edge of financial ruin. As Tuscaloosa has grown, many have moved across the bridge to Northport and northern Tuscaloosa County, which has substantially boosted property values and tax revenues over the last decade.

As a side effect of this rapid growth, the elected body in Northport has become one that increasingly focuses on independence, in an attempt to step out from Tuscaloosa’s shadow and shed off its reputation as a bedroom community for the much-larger city.

But, if any elected officials on both sides of the river are being honest, the two cities are locked at the hip, which calls for a culture of compromise, not conflict.

Most, if not all, will remember Northport’s highly publicized push for its own city school system — an initiative that has since lost momentum due to a failed property tax increase at the ballot box and the astronomical costs of seceding from the county school system.

Among the most vocal advocates for increased autonomy in Northport is Council President Jeff Hogg, who was the only elected official willing to go on record regarding the proposal of a metro government.

A self-described fiscal conservative who places a high premium on Northport being able to follow through on its promises, Hogg was not a fan of expanded government in Tuscaloosa County.

Indeed, the council president has made a top priority of shepherding wish-list recreational projects in the hopes of boosting the city’s profile within the portfolio of the region’s larger tourism economy.

“In today’s climate, we need less government red-tape and not bigger bureaucracy in local government,” Hogg told me. “Tuscaloosa County residents, whether City of Northport, City of Tuscaloosa, or those on the outside in the County limits all have different wants and needs. Our area is not a one size fits all system.”

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