Local Government Amalgamations

1
Local Government Amalgamations

• Robert Bish

2
Is Bigger Always Better for Municipal Governments?

• For most of the Twentieth century
• An urban area could only be governed properly
  with a single professionally organized
  government.
• By the 60s some doubts were being raised
• People in different areas had different problems
  and preferred different local services
• Local governments should not be remote from local
  issues
• Most services did not possess economies of scale
• One solution was the two tiered government
• Halifax 1996 (not much success?)

3
Governance

• Three components
• Organization
• How is the system organized?
• Citizen Representation
• How is it done public meetings, hearings,
  elections, direct contact with officials
• Fiscal Equivalence
• When citizens who benefit from the expenditure
  are those who make or influence the decision and
  pay its costs

4
First Component Organization

• Big governments do not necessarily have lower per
  capita costs
• It is no longer useful to think of the ideal
  local government as a large integrated
  bureaucracy of full-time politicians and
  bureaucrats.
• The primary responsibility is governance not
  production

5
Second Component Citizen Representation

• The larger the government, the more important are
  well-organized groups with special interests
• Voter turnout is higher in smaller areas
• The smaller the Government, the more similar are
  citizens and councillors attitudes
• The larger the government, the more expensive it
  is to campaign

6
Third Component Fiscal Equivalence

• When citizens who benefit from the service are
  those who make or influence the decision and pay
  its costs
• Snow removal on sidewalks, extra school funding
• User fee at the pool, HRM has 60 areas

7
Production of Local Services

• Small governments can cost less if they take
  advantage of specialization and trade in markets
  without attempting to produce all the activities
  themselves
• E.g. contracting out garbage collection
• Clean-up after white Yuan with large snow
  blowers from Maine also good for Maine because
  they receive some revenue from this cooperation

8
How Much Do Municipal Politicians Cost?

• Elected officials and their support staff cost
  each citizen about 4.60
• A trivial amount

9
Government Size and Costs

• Smaller governments can cost less
• If they do not produce all activities themselves
  and rely on large efficient firms to deliver
  services
• E.g. in 1985, solid waste collected by local
  government 42.29 by private crews 28.02
• A competitive environment is important

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Primary Responsibility of Local Governments

• Governance not production
• Find ways in which citizens can work with
  councilors and express their wishes on
• Regulations
• Production and quality of services
• There is no best way to form a regional
  government look at first bullet above
• Change will increase in the 21st century so
  governments must be able to adapt quickly
  probably favoring smaller governments