Von Army (???, edit: it’s Von Ormy) is a city in Texas. It used to be unincorporated, then some firefighters were grousing about how San Antonio was going to annex them and they’d get higher taxes but no representation. One of them was like “we should make our own city”, the chief was all “go on then”, and they did. That first one became mayor.
Wanted to be as cheap as possible. Initially had property taxes to get them going, but started reducing them every year. One thing they did: buy a squad car from a nearby city that was replacing theirs. It lasted like a year but no regrets.
Another thing they did: some recent college grad from some city-development-related major wanted to do an internship and didn’t really like the obvious options. Heard about Von Army, called them up and was like hey do you want an intern? They said sure, and got their intern to write their legal code by looking at codes from nearby cities and copying the good bits. Health and safety, stuff like a fire code, sure. Indoor smoking prohibitions, not so much.
Intern later became City Administrator. Mayor wanted him to do a bunch of stuff but didn’t want him raising taxes. Mayor’s plan was to attract big businesses (Walmart, Target) with something or other, and collect sales taxes. Administrator tried to work with them, but the lack of sewage was a dealbreaker (residents just had to empty their septic tanks). So Administrator tried to work with San Antonio for sewage, got what he thought was a pretty big deal, but Mayor rejected it. Administrator resigned.
Today he thinks Von Army is not working out very well, and PM reporters spoke to people who also didn’t think that. Former Mayor thinks it’s fine, people just don’t understand that this is the price of low taxes. Von Army still has low taxes, but gets lots of money from speeding tickets for people passing through. $60k this year, expecting $250k next year, reporter is a bit incredulous at that, I don’t think Current Mayor explains. (I don’t know if $60k is actually a lot in this context. Current Mayor is Former Mayor’s mum.) Reporter questions whether it’s a bit paradoxical, like “low taxes on residents but high taxes on non-residents”, Current Mayor says every place does this.
Planet Money #945 (19 Oct 2019): The Liberty City
Von Army (???, edit: it’s Von Ormy) is a city in Texas. It used to be unincorporated, then some firefighters were grousing about how San Antonio was going to annex them and they’d get higher taxes but no representation. One of them was like “we should make our own city”, the chief was all “go on then”, and they did. That first one became mayor.
Wanted to be as cheap as possible. Initially had property taxes to get them going, but started reducing them every year. One thing they did: buy a squad car from a nearby city that was replacing theirs. It lasted like a year but no regrets.
Another thing they did: some recent college grad from some city-development-related major wanted to do an internship and didn’t really like the obvious options. Heard about Von Army, called them up and was like hey do you want an intern? They said sure, and got their intern to write their legal code by looking at codes from nearby cities and copying the good bits. Health and safety, stuff like a fire code, sure. Indoor smoking prohibitions, not so much.
Intern later became City Administrator. Mayor wanted him to do a bunch of stuff but didn’t want him raising taxes. Mayor’s plan was to attract big businesses (Walmart, Target) with something or other, and collect sales taxes. Administrator tried to work with them, but the lack of sewage was a dealbreaker (residents just had to empty their septic tanks). So Administrator tried to work with San Antonio for sewage, got what he thought was a pretty big deal, but Mayor rejected it. Administrator resigned.
Today he thinks Von Army is not working out very well, and PM reporters spoke to people who also didn’t think that. Former Mayor thinks it’s fine, people just don’t understand that this is the price of low taxes. Von Army still has low taxes, but gets lots of money from speeding tickets for people passing through. $60k this year, expecting $250k next year, reporter is a bit incredulous at that, I don’t think Current Mayor explains. (I don’t know if $60k is actually a lot in this context. Current Mayor is Former Mayor’s mum.) Reporter questions whether it’s a bit paradoxical, like “low taxes on residents but high taxes on non-residents”, Current Mayor says every place does this.