Moorman, supra, at 473 ("residence is a legitimate criterion"). The legislature could have rationally determined that residents of the annexing municipality and the area to be annexed are most directly affected by an annexation. The former will have to absorb new territory and provide services for it. The latter will become part of the municipality. In brief, the General Assembly has limited the franchise to those who will reside within the proposed city limits, and that is a rational classification under the lenient standards set forth in Holt Civic Club and Salyer Land Co., supra.
Notwithstanding this, the plaintiffs argue that §§ 71.015 and 71.870 are irrational for various reasons. The annexations are eroding the County tax base, thereby hindering the County's ability to provide services and threatening itsfuture as a charter county. The annexations are destroying the existence of the unincorporated County area as a "community". The statutes encourage unplanned annexations which interfere with orderly development and planning and zoning. Essentially, the plaintiffs argue that the statutory voting scheme is irrational because it encourages irrational annexations.
But such arguments should be made to the General Assembly, not this Court. As the Supreme Court stated in Hunter v. Pittsburgh, supra,
"Municipal corporations are political subdivisions of the state, created as convenient agencies for exercising such of the governmental powers of the state as may be intrusted to them.... The number, nature, and duration of the powers conferred upon these corporations and the territory over which they shall be exercised rests in the absolute discretion of the state.... The