combining local government?

Question

Within our county we have numerous small and medium cities, each with its own Mayor, Police, Fire and other government entities. If the county became the government seat for all within its boundaries 
and  provide the services and government services needed how much could be saved by doing away with the power mongers?  Taxes would go down, combined police and fire services "could" help in keeping down costs of benefits by combining employees. Taxes would not be shared by the cities and fill the coffers of the county.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

It does sometimes seem absurd to have so many different government bodies (all of which tax). In Illinois, there is the state government, counties, and townships. Elemementary school districts coincide with townships, but they are separate entities. High school districts comprise two townships. The community college district is still larger. Then there's the village, park district, library district, and metropolitan sanitary district.

I'll bet there aren't many people who can name the members of the sanitary district board or the library district board, so I don't buy into the "closer to the people, democracy with a small d" line. But I'm not convinced that consolidating all these districts into the county would save any money either.

Anna P · Answer

It depends on the size of the county.  This is happening in some places, combining several towns especially for essential services.  If it is a large county, it probably wouldn't work.

? · Answer

First, the government levels you describe don't exist everywhere in the US. Colorado counties have almost no government and fire departments are regional. Second, do you wish to loose local control and flavor?  Why not centralize all government?  Why have different state governments?

tacticalfiend · Answer

Consolidation of regional government sounds like a great idea but in practice it is actually more expensive than having small town governments, also the larger the entity's sphere of control the less representation you will have.

? · Answer

exactly the opposite for example terrorist cell are quite effective and they operate independently. When one cell is compromised the rest go on unaffected. we need to let local communities collect their own money and appropriate it as they see fit and let them make their own laws.The more productive ones will be places people choose to live and the poor ones will fail and eventually adapt.

Anonymous · Answer

That is called tyranny. It goes like that so that areas can implement laws that wouldn't work anywhere else.

combining local government?

6 Answers