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City–County Consolidation by Suzanne M. Leland,Kurt Thurmaier Pdf
Although a frequently discussed reform, campaigns to merge a major municipality and county to form a unified government fail to win voter approval eighty per cent of the time. One cause for the low success rate may be that little systematic analysis of consolidated governments has been done. In City–County Consolidation, Suzanne Leland and Kurt Thurmaier compare nine city–county consolidations—incorporating data from 10 years before and after each consolidation—to similar cities and counties that did not consolidate. Their groundbreaking study offers valuable insight into whether consolidation meets those promises made to voters to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of these governments. The book will appeal to those with an interest in urban affairs, economic development, local government management, general public administration, and scholars of policy, political science, sociology, and geography.
Case Studies of City-County Consolidation by Suzanne M. Leland,Kurt Thurmaier Pdf
Facing cutbacks in federal and state assistance and a new wave of taxpayer revolts, local governments have renewed interest in local government consolidation as a way of achieving efficiencies of scale in response to citizen demands for services. Yet the vast majority of consolidation efforts fail, either during the process of drafting a charter or once they reach the ballot - only five have passed since 1990; only thirty-two have been successfully implemented since the first, when the city of New Orleans merged with Orleans Parish in 1805. What accounts for the high failure rate and what factors led to successful consolidations? This volume presents thirteen comparable case studies of consolidation campaigns and distills the findings.
City-County Consolidation and Its Alternatives: Reshaping the Local Government Landscape by J.B. Carr,Richard C. Feiock Pdf
City-country consolidation builds upon the Progressive tradition of favoring structural reform of local governments. This volume looks at some important issues confronting contemporary efforts to consolidate governments and develops a theoretical approach to understanding both the motivations for pursuing consolidation and the way the rules guiding the process shape the outcome. Individual chapters consider the push for city-county consolidation and the current context in which such decisions are debated, along with several alternatives to city-county consolidation. The transaction costs of city-county consolidation are compared against the costs of municipal annexation, inter-local agreements, and the use of special district governments to achieve the desired consolidation of services. The final chapters compare competing perspectives for and against consolidation and put together some of the pieces of an explanatory theory of local government consolidation.
Government Consolidation and Economic Development in Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh by Rae W. Archibald,Sally Sleeper Pdf
This report concludes that, although evidence is mixed and effects difficult to measure, consolidating the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County could enhance economic development by unifying leadership, improving policy direction and coordination, and sharpening economic-development initiatives. Increased collaboration with the private sector also is important, and combining only two governments still leaves the region highly fragmented.
Author : W. E. Lyons Publisher : University Press of Kentucky Page : 192 pages File Size : 46,5 Mb Release : 2014-07-15 Category : Political Science ISBN : 9780813163598
The Politics of City-County Merger by W. E. Lyons Pdf
Although city-county consolidation has been urged for years as a solution for many urban problems, relatively few communities have come to the point of offering such an option to the voters and in most of the communities that have done so, the voters have rejected the idea. In 1972 the voters of Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky, approved consolidation by a better than two-to- one margin. W. E. Lyons examines this victory for consolidation, comparing the Lexington setting with other places where merger has been attempted. For the first time in the literature, the details of actually drafting a consolidated city-county charter are described. Lyons shows that if either the city or the county government is hostile, the resulting problems are sufficient to stymie the whole undertaking. Even under the most favorable of conditions it is difficult for a commission of thirty citizens to develop the skills and maintain the patience and spirit of compromise necessary to produce a workable charter, acceptable to all members. This examination of a successful consolidation fight includes the results of several surveys of Lexington voters before the referendum and an analysis of the election results. Lyons's description of the campaign strategies used and the reasons for their selection will be especially valuable to leaders considering consolidation in their own communities.
Local Government Consolidation in the United States by Dagney Gail Faulk,Michael J. Hicks Pdf
This book addresses two issues related to the structure of local government: the determinants of consolidation and the potential impact of consolidation on local government spending. This is a narrow undertaking and leaves important elements of local government reform for future analysis. The study's primary foci are examining the factors that influence city-county consolidation, considering the impact of city-county consolidation on local government spending, and estimating the potential savings that could result from the scale economies and efficiency gains from consolidating local government units. While other regions of the United States are considered in this study, but the analysis focuses primarily on the Midwest where population declines and changes in the employment base and state policies (such as property tax caps in Indiana) have had dramatic effects on the fiscal viability of local governments. The current economic climate, along with policy changes related to property tax restructuring in many states, has led to substantial reductions in local governments' budgets. As a result, many local governments are in crisis and are considering some level of consolidation. Statistical methods and data on consolidation referendum attempts in the United States since 1970 are used to test whether governments that have consolidated (i.e., voters approved the consolidation referendum) had higher spending prior to their consolidation (as measured by local government employment rates, payrolls, and expenditures) compared to the average local government in the state. The effects of city-county consolidation are explored; using consolidation referendum data, the impact of consolidation on local government employment rates, payrolls, and expenditures is examined. The influence of consolidation on economic development is also investigated with some interesting results. The study also used two methods to estimate the savings from government consolidation and presents aggregate models to examine the potential savings from economies of scale and efficiency improvements. The book also helpfully provides a helpful discussion of the economies of scale and efficiency for several functional areas, including police and fire protection, sewerage, solid waste, public welfare, administration, health, education, and libraries. This book will be an essential resource for political scientists and policy makers interested in American government. Written in a highly accessible manner, it will also be a valuable read for students and general readers.
