Consolidating Local Government

Government waste remains an enduring problem--paper pushers, nine-to-five attitudes, patronage jobs, unneeded bureaucracy, overlapping agencies, backward technologies, earmarks and all the rest. No doubt about it spending is out of hand.

One of the most overlooked places of government waste is not at the federal or state level. It's at the local level where in many places we have myriad forms of county, town/city/village governments with separate balkanized school districts all operating with various layers of officials doing the same jobs. And we all wonder why property taxes are so high in so many places.

Let's look at public schools. Within some counties there may be scores of separate school districts, each with their own high paid superintendent and staffs replicating policy, handling purchasing, managing HR, hiring various consultants, doing their own thing without any buying power or efficiencies gained from consolidating operations. Parents want to avoid losing control and influence in the schools where they send their kids, and school quality underlies property values in many places. But school taxes are out of sight partly because of all this bloated administration.

And tell me it makes sense to have all these separate county and village police departments, highway agencies,  fire departments, etc., etc.  Each has their own chief, uniforms, radio equipment, cars, and  on and on--again with no administrative efficiencies.  It's a great way to have lots of extra functionaries, equipment, and office space paid for by taxpayers.

In some major cities you even have multiple police agencies getting in each other's way. To Rudy Guiliani's credit, when mayor he consolidated separate transit and housing police departments into the New York police department. But New York Fire and Police departments still use separate radio systems and balk at merging emergency responder systems even after the shortcomings highlighted during 9/11.

New Jersey Gov. Corzine is one of the few government leaders taking on unnecessary local governments,  arguing against providing state aid for smaller jurisdictions. We should pay attention to see if consolidating local government gains any taxpayer support. If it doesn't we have only ourselves to blame for paying higher taxes.      

Comments

[Bob K]

I would tend to agree with you except for situations like those in Metro Atlanta. Several communities, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, and now Dunwoody have been formed to keep tax dollars local. After years of seeing taxes go from high end communities to other parts of the counties voters have had enough.

Bottom line it depends on the quality of leadership and the demographics of the community. If the demographics are similar, then consolidation is workable.

[Ron G]

Let's go further with this thought - why do we need duplication at the state level - is there really a need for 50 different state Departments of Education? Why not learn from Europeans - whose economies and societies are doing better than ours - and where government is typically much more centralized and local government must follow its lead?

We could also get rid of the strict limits on government power in our Constitution - which drives the need to create complex and evolving laws and regulation guiding the exercise of that power - and give government the discretionary power it enjoys in most European countries.

But of course that isn't our system, nor do I think people want a wholesale revision to the Constitution. That's not to say government couldn't work much better. But we ought to recognize the way it works is in large part a reflection of our system - and its limitations including the need for political compromise - and our shared vision of decentralized local government.

[Geoffrey]

Sandy Springs has a population of over 85,000 people. It is not an example of waste and abuse. The communities that Gov. Corzine is trying to consolidate are tiny. Teterboro, NJ has 39 residents and its own school board!