Counties could benefit from local authority

Missouri's 114 counties provide a tier of government that falls between municipalities and the state legislature. Only the largest counties -- all in urban areas -- are permitted to seek voter authorization for charter government. And only counties with charter government are able to pass ordinances to address local regulatory needs. For most counties, this means the Missouri Legislature is the governing body when it comes to regulating even minor details.

A bill currently under review in the Missouri House of Representatives would give all Missouri counties the authority to enact local ordinances. One of the bill's co-sponsors is state Rep. Scott Lipke of Jackson. Recently, Cape Girardeau County's presiding commissioner, Gerald Jones, spoke in favor of the bill during a House Local Government Committee hearing in Jefferson City. Jones also is the president of Missouri Association of Counties.

As Jones observed during the hearing, even small towns in Cape Girardeau County like Allenville and Gordonville have more say in local affairs than Cape Girardeau County, whose population makes it one of the state's larger counties.

But even with a population of about 68,000, the county is 17,000 residents short of the 85,000 currently required to ask voters to consider a county charter.

Jones pointed to issues such as rat infestations, uncovered wells and the safety of cell-phone towers as the kind problems that have faced Cape Girardeau County in the past. With ordinance powers, those issues could be handled without taking a statewide approach through the legislature.

State Rep. Robert Johnson of Lee's Summit, chairman of the House committee considering the bill, suggested an alternative: Allow all counties to adopt charters with voter approval. That would allow voters in each county -- not the legislature -- to decide if their county commissioners should have ordinance powers.

Both the bill under consideration and Johnson's suggestion are steps in the right direction.

There are too many situations and needs peculiar to one county and not all 113 others that ought to be remedied by locally elected commissioners, not by state statute. State Rep. Todd Smith of Sedalia recalled that during his years on the Pettis County Commission there were occasions when commissioners took regulatory action under the county's statutory power to protect public health. But he concedes the county was on shaky ground.

Rather than have counties attempting to bend their powers or be hamstrung in taking appropriate local action, it would be better to allow some form of ordinance authorization to a level of government that provides essential services to both cities and rural areas. This bill helps move that concept further down the legislative pipeline.