concern; and (7) authority to establish
area-wide or regional governments, to
be composed of directly elected officials
and empowered to conduct specified
area-wide functions.
With respect to its recommendation
that residents of metropolitan areas be
authorized to establish area-wide or
regional governments, the Commission
believes that such governments are
needed today to make effective decisions
in such matters as regional transporta-
tion, land use, air and water contami-
nation, and area-wide recreational and
open-space needs. This recommendation
is made because the Commission believes
that the failure to establish such govern-
ments will lead to a greater loss of self-
determination in local affairs through
the continuous transfer of responsibility
to the state and federal governments.
Such units of government will be neces-
sary if there is to be local participation
in determining the priorities and plans
for multicounty areas, and in develop-
ing integrated programs and financial
support for area-wide transportation,
land use, water supply, control of pollu-
tion, and other functions. To be fully
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responsible units of local government,
such units should have sufficient juris-
diction and authority to see problems as
a whole, to formulate policy issues for
voters, to arrive at real decisions, and to
act through program performance, regu-
lation, and taxation. They should be
directly responsible to the voters for all
of their actions.
After much deliberation, the Commis-
sion recommends that alternative pro-
cedures for the creation of area-wide
governments be prescribed in the consti-
tution. The Commission does not rec-
ommend that such units actually be cre-
ated by the constitution itself; however,
it does strongly recommend that specific
provisions for their creation be included
in any new constitution. In draft Section
7.03, the Commission proposes several
alternative methods for the creation of
directly elected multicounty or regional
governmental units. In draft Section
7.06, it also provides for the creation of
area-wide or intergovernmental authori-
ties, in keeping with its belief that
maximum flexibility should be permitted
local government in solving urban serv-
ice problems.
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