Maybe it’s because two Virginia Beach financial planners only hatched the idea for the Roundtable of Tidewater Business Leaders a few years ago, but this growing organization of 35 small to mid level companies is not well known.

It ought to be.

The group meets monthly and routinely attracts well-known presenters, including many of the Southside mayors, to speak about topical political and economic issues. So we were pleased that they set aside time to allow the Hampton Roads Partnership to pick their brains about regionalism.

It was time well spent.

Around the horseshoe table was a current member of Leadership Hampton Roads, who assured us that up and coming leaders in the community are interested in more inter-city cooperation.  And we learned that there is plenty going on, thanks to the investment of local philanthropies such as the Virginia Beach Foundation, whose executive director told us that money from businessmen and women in his city were helping the Oasis program in Portsmouth and Suffolk as well as an effort to promote affordable housing in Norfolk. And other Foundations in other cities he assured us are doing likewise, regardless of where the cause is headquartered.

We were also pleased that Virginia Beach Commissioner of the Revenue Phil Kellam was in attendance to remind us of both the disadvantages, and advantages, of competition among cities.  Yes there can be economies of scale through consolidation of services, but by having each government set its own local tax rates, he said, it keeps every municipality’s lower. 

But “myopic” is how one participant described the intent behind securing the location of a business in one city over another, on the basis that all the property tax revenue generated goes solely to the winning suitor.  “Everyone benefits when a new firm comes to the area,” he said, “because the workers will live in cities other than where the company locates.” But he acknowledged that it would sure be nice if cities could share in tax benefits, a feature of a county/city governing structure that we do not have in Virginia. Another though said he found the recent pursuit of a major league baseball team, and the participation of several local mayors, to be a good sign of how the cities can cooperate, even within our current political alignment.

There was plenty of discussion about transportation this day, especially on what went wrong in 2002 with the regional sales tax referendum.  “There were too many projects on the list and not enough people understood their value, particularly the Third Crossing.”  “The marketing was not done well.”  “There was not enough time to educate the public about such a complicated topic.”  “Politicians are the worst sellers, and there was a real lack of trust.”  

Indeed we heard that the reason that this group is principally a Virginia Beach/Chesapeake/Portsmouth/Norfolk association is because of the water barrier that keeps the Peninsula and Southside apart. But from our perspective business leaders from four or five cities meeting and working together - to network, share ideas and plan community service programs - is a positive step in itself.  And news worth sharing with the entire region.