The City of Mobile is considering the annexation of four different areas west of Mobile’s current city limits. Officials hired a consultant, PFM Group Consulting, LLC, to analyze the city’s projections of how each of the four annexation scenarios would impact revenues, service demand, expenditures and demographic.
Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, multiple City of Mobile departments and various other public entities, PFM's team has spent the past two months evaluating the impact of the four proposed annexation areas.
Each of the proposed maps submitted to PFM by Mayor Sandy Stimpson's administration set out to achieve four goals:
1) Preserve Mobile's status as a black-majority city
2) Ensure the voting age population in 4 of Mobile’s 7 council districts remains majority-minority
3) Bring Mobile's overall population above 200,000
4) Ensure any annexation would be revenue positive
PFM’s analysis found all those goals would be accomplished by annexation. It confirmed that, even in a scenario with no future growth in the proposed annexation areas, the City of Mobile would bring in more revenue than it would expend providing additional city services in those areas.
The report also notes that "in the absence of annexation, Mobile runs the risk of continued population loss," which could "harm the economic and fiscal wellbeing of the city and the overall metropolitan area." Citing a study of Birmingham and its surrounding communities, the report points out that central cities are often regional economic drivers and their financial health impacts neighboring communities.
As the report says on Page 24: “The fortunes of central cities and suburban communities are connected, sometimes growing at each other's expense but more often rising or falling together.”
"We appreciate the work PFM's team put into this report, which we believe clearly shows that inviting communities in West Mobile to join the City of Mobile would benefit ALL Mobilians as well as the residents of those communities," Mayor Stimpson said in a press release. "We look forward to working with City Councilors in the coming weeks to find a proposed annexation area that everyone can support."
PFM’s full report is available to view and download on the City of Mobile’s website or by clicking here.