Question

What should more readily apply, Dillon’s rule or home rule? What are the politics surrounding these positions?

Answer 1

Dillon's rule does not prohibit or hamper the management of development. In reality, many Dillon Rule countries retain model growth management schemes contrary to conventional wisdom. For instance, Maryland, Washington, and Wisconsin have all introduced powerful programs that provide local and county governments with the instruments and incentives for managing or channeling growth— though Dillon's rule prevails in each state. At the same moment, Oregon-a non-Dillon state with one of the nation's greatest traditions of domestic rule-supports the nation's highest state-controlled growth management system.

In brief, adherence to Dillon's rule by a state does not in any manner preclude powerful intervention to address problems related to growth. Legislatures in such countries maintain the authority to give wide liberty to localities to participate in growth management. In contrast, home rule states legislatures can pass legislation that limit municipalities from participating in exclusionary practices or other activities that seem to undermine significant state goals.

Effective growth management needs adherence almost always to a set of wide principles intended to accommodate growth and essentially influence the dynamics of metropolitan growth on a regional scale. Local governments, on the other hand, usually behave in a parochial way, or absence the geographical scope or capacity to handle development on a significant scale. To that extent, there is likely no panacea for growth management difficulties offered by extra home rule. And it likely hinders issue solving to the extent that it adds to higher fragmentation and localism.

Local rules like zoning, extensive plans, subdivision laws, and investment in infrastructure play a strong role in solving the problems of metropolitan development. For their part, countries should take the lead in encouraging and implementing progressive efforts in development management— through infrastructure, land use, tax, and other investment policies— that provide localities with the instruments and incentives they need to develop in ways that are safe at both national and state level.