Municipal State Forms in U.S. Home Rule States

Discusison

Harrison Quigley, Alpine, Utah, USA, Co-founder of Raindance Producer Cooperative :

* a Village State or Municipal State with built-in integrability under existing law

"Was reading your exchange with Tiberius about Nation States and seeing how your thinking closely parallels my own, the major difference being Nation States vs. Village or Municipal States. Although the concepts are very similar, the difference is in perhaps size and integrability into existing reality.

Although a Nation State may be able to be established in cyberspace, few existing nations, if any, would accept the establishment of a sovereign nation within their own borders. Some US southern states tried that in 1861 with disastrous results.

However, many US states are "Home Rule" states to varying degrees. In Utah, for example (where I live), the right to establish a sovereign municipality governed by its residents is a state constitutional right. In this case, constitutionally protected Home Rule empowers the residents of a Home Rule municipality to write its own ordinances and conduct activities as it pleases, provided it doesn't run afoul of State or Federal law.

Moreover, such Home Rule municipalities are not only allowed to conduct business and trade that contributes to the public good but the income it derives from such business activities are tax-exempt under IRC 170 (c) 1 and donations to the the municipality are tax deductible, just like for a nonprofit organization under IRC 501 (c) 3.

Accordingly, an employee-owned producer cooperative could be its own sovereign, tax-exempt, resident-governed municipality. In other words, a Village State or Municipal State with built-in integrability under existing law. Plus, a variety of such Home Rule producer cooperative municipalities would have a self interest in joining a commons network for the attendant cosmo-local benefits."

(email, March 2024)