Should Counties Determine their own Fate?

This week on Wednesday October 17 in the Austin-Statesman their was an interesting editorial written by a Democratic representative in the House. Valinda Bolton of Austin made a bold and valid argument of the power struggle between local and state government. Bolton expressed the dispute to be the lack of capability and resources to counties in order to control their rapidly increasing population. Close to home in Travis County, Bolton uses an example that will directly touch Austin residents and other state citizens facing the same issues. She states that she recently witnessed the Hamilton pool's destruction of its beauty due to construction and renovation mixed with heavy rain this summer. The natural pool could have been preserved if the county had more control over land use. From this well planned article it is easy to see that the Representative had carefully thought and organized the article. She gave clear examples of the problem and continued on to show that she had already began to take a stand on the issue; by spreading her thoughts to the public, and receiving feedback from the community on the enormous population growth and expansion. Also, the democrat brought to the 80th legislation a bill that would give more authority to counties to establish growth and development, but despite her efforts the bill was struck down early in its process. The article was clear on its purpose and even if the facts were not provided we could easily take a look around our urban home, Austin, and see that problems like noise, water, and pollution need to managed. It is comforting to know that one woman in the government had the audacity to bring forth the issue to others and push for a change in power to embrace local government.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/10/17/1018bolton_edit.html