Akron
Beacon Journal...
Incentive to share
Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011
Ohio must shrink its costly layers of local government. The state can
do much more to help spur the change
After struggling through a recession that depressed tax revenues and
stiffened voter resistance to new levies, local governments now are
facing a budget plan by Gov. John Kasich that would slash revenue
sharing by 33 percent during the next two years. The result? More talk
among units of local government about working together more
efficiently, sharing resources and saving money.
As reported Monday by Dave Scott, a Beacon Journal staff writer, the
days of handshake agreements among fire chiefs to share equipment and
personnel are giving way to the idea of merging departments. One
encouraging possibility is the creation of a fire district for the
western part of Summit County, covering nine communities and 95,000
people.
Such strategic thinking is long overdue. Yet, as Scott reported,
resistance remains high and the planning money available for mergers
low. The most prominent barrier is the resistance of local government
employees who fear their jobs will be cut. Yet arguments couched in
community pride, making emotional appeals not supported by financial
reality, risk layoffs affecting service levels.
Whacking funds for local governments hardly is a sufficient role for
the state to play. The Kasich administration argues that easing
mandates, increasing the use of technology and reducing legal barriers
to sharing services (along with the collective bargaining bill) will
give local governments the tools they need.
What’s required, too, are financial incentives to encourage
consolidating services and merging communities, the state making the
necessary investment to yield real savings over the long haul.
Unfortunately, nothing like that is on the table.
The approach was suggested last summer by the Center for Community
Solutions in its report ‘’Thinking the Unthinkable: Finding Common
Ground for Resolving Ohio’s Fiscal Crisis.’’ Among other alternatives,
the report outlined the possibility of eliminating state funding for
local governments, replacing it with a grant program to encourage
collaboration, consolidation and other means of operating more
efficiently.
Even at less than half the size of the existing Local Government Fund,
such a program would be large enough to support 1,000 to 2,000 annual
grants of roughly $250,000, the center concluded.
The approach would use more effectively the resources available to the
state in tough budget times. The funding would help communities make
the right choices in dealing with new fiscal realities, helping with
up-front costs such as merger studies or sharing in the purchasing of
new equipment, setting the stage for long-term gains in efficiency.
Read it at the Akron Beacon Journal
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