The Impacts of City-county Government Consolidation

The Impacts of City-county Government Consolidation PDF Author: Danny W. Durning
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metropolitan government
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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The Impacts of City-county Government Consolidation

The Impacts of City-county Government Consolidation PDF Author: Danny W. Durning
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metropolitan government
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description


City-County Consolidation and Its Alternatives: Reshaping the Local Government Landscape

City-County Consolidation and Its Alternatives: Reshaping the Local Government Landscape PDF Author: J.B. Carr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317474473
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
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.

Local Government Consolidation in the United States

Local Government Consolidation in the United States PDF Author: Dagney Gail Faulk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781604977486
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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.

Local Government Consolidation in the United States

Local Government Consolidation in the United States PDF Author: Dagney Gail Faulk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781604977486
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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.

Case Studies of City-county Consolidation

Case Studies of City-county Consolidation PDF Author: Suzanne M. Leland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
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

City–County Consolidation PDF Author: Suzanne M. Leland
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 158901622X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
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.

Government Restructuring

Government Restructuring PDF Author: Ismaila Odogba
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metropolitan government
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Over the last two decades, there has been renewed emphasis on the economic roles of regions and territorial space in the international market place. In the United States, new regionalists posit that structural approaches, in particular, city-county consolidation, will enable regions to be more competitive in the global economy, ameliorate certain development problems, and generate economic benefits. However, despite an extensive body of literature on the fiscal impacts of consolidation reform, the economic development literature remains sparse. The few studies on the impact of consolidation reform on economic development usually do not engage systematic empirical tests. In most studies, comparison counties are selected without any statistical justifications and consolidation is treated as the establishment of "one unified government" despite the continued existence of overlapping structures of government. Given some of the consequences of successful consolidation referenda, such as the redistribution of political influence, the economic development impacts of consolidated counties require empirical tests in other to inform the decision of municipal jurisdictions considering governmental consolidation as a policy for countywide economic growth. This dissertation address aspects of this deficiency by employing paired evaluations on a systematic basis to identify the economic development impacts of city-county consolidation in different industrial sectors. The study uses statistical methods--cluster and time series analysis--to assess how territorial and institutional restructuring affects the economic performance of three consolidated counties. Overall, the argument by political actors and reform advocates that the spatial realignment of territorial boundaries with political authority in order to establish an appropriate context for enhancing regional economic development is not substantiated by the results of the study.

Impact of City-county Consolidation of the Rural-urban Fringe

Impact of City-county Consolidation of the Rural-urban Fringe PDF Author: Robert Eugene McArthur
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metropolitan areas
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description


Beyond the City-county Divide

Beyond the City-county Divide PDF Author: Christopher Johnson Acuff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Despite an abundance of research on the impacts of city-county consolidation, the majority of studies to date have focused on outcomes related to efficiency, effectiveness, and economic development. However, two areas which have gone relatively unexplored, particularly from a quantitative perspective, relate to the impact of consolidation on minority representation, as well as the determinants of successful referenda often required in establishing these forms of government. The existing literature on representation is sparse, and often relies on anecdotes or a small number of individual examples. Further, while several in-depth studies have attempted to assess the factors which contribute to successful and unsuccessful consolidation attempts, analyses often rely on qualitative assessments of aggregate results and macro-level dynamics. Using a variety of data and methods, this study presents new perspectives on these under-explored aspects of consolidation. In examining African American representation, this analysis provides both aggregate and county-by-county results showing that while representation has increased in most consolidated governments, a great deal of progress remains in order to reach parity. Further, individual county results raise questions about the negative impact consolidation continues to have, including in more recent cases, and in states formerly covered under preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Additionally, with regard to consolidation campaigns, findings reveal that race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status play a large role in voting patterns related to referenda approval. Together, these results provide further insights on factors contributing to consolidation approval, as well as the potential impacts that adopting a new form of government will have on the African American community. In all, these findings have implications for academics, elected officials, and reformers who wish to better understand the nature of consolidation campaigns, and serves as a reminder of the continuing challenges faced in trying to achieve equitable representation in local government.

Government Consolidation and Economic Development in Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh

Government Consolidation and Economic Development in Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh PDF Author: Rae W. Archibald
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 083304463X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 63

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Book Description
This report seeks to contribute to understanding the effect of consolidation on future economic development, which is especially critical as Pittsburgh and Allegheny County consider again how their two governments might act to better meet the needs of the region."--BOOK JACKET.