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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Rust Belt states consider abolishing, consolidating or reining in small local jurisdictions

"With shortfalls nationwide that could reach $112 billion in the next fiscal year, states including Ohio, New Jersey, and Michigan are pushing school districts and local governments — each with its own officials and budgets — to share more services and to consolidate for the sake of efficiency and cost," Mark Niquette of Bloomberg News reports.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich "has suggested a bipartisan panel similar to the federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission to analyze consolidations and document the benefits," Niquette writes. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has clled for eliminating the state’s 1,008 "venerable but obsolete" township boards, long a target of reformers in the Hoosier State. Niquette's story also mentions a Pennsylvania bill "that would require consolidation among the commonwealth’s 2,652 boroughs — 30 percent of which have 1,000 or fewer residents, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Development." (Read more)

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