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A new study looks at the cost of local government and invites the region to be much smarter about deploying its resources
Published on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008
You don't have to be a calculus whiz to deduce that Raleigh-Durham may be saving money, dollars the region could direct to more pressing priorities than the overhead required to operate school districts. Neither is keen analysis required to detect the worthy purpose of evaluating the structure of government in Northeast Ohio.
Here is a welcome invitation to address boldly the redeployment of resources, say, routing funds from superintendent salaries to early childhood education, or sparing businesses the headache of dealing with multiple levels of government.
Anyone for consolidating schools districts to ensure all-day kindergarten across the region?
The study makes a handful of region-to-region comparisons, measuring Northeast Ohio against Columbus and Dayton, plus Indianapolis and Minneapolis-St. Paul. None is more intriguing than the matchup with Raleigh-Durham, where the system of government has been updated, layers of bureaucracy ripped away, replaced with a less costly version. Count the townships: Raleigh-Durham has zero. Northeast Ohio has 249. Special districts? Northeast Ohio has 130 to Raleigh-Durham's 63.
The Fund and its partners opted for a comparison with Indianapolis and Minneapolis-St. Paul because the two Midwest cities and their surroundings have been doing well economically. The telling thing isn't the level of taxation, the former spending slightly less per capita and the latter somewhat more. Decisive is the way resources are spent. These regions, too, have cast aside antiquated forms of government.
Ohio essentially has a governmental structure dating to the 19th century. The cost study acknowledges that its numbers are not complete, and that apples-to-apples comparisons can be more difficult to achieve. What the report seeks to spark is further evaluation of government in the region, providing the beginning of financial data on which to base intelligent decisions. It logically leads to such questions as whether the region needs so many separate police departments or health deparments.
This theme isn't new to the Fund or others in Northeast Ohio. Already mayors and city managers have been looking at regional planning and revenue sharing. Stark County has launched a 21st Century Government Initiative. Cuyahoga County has set in motion an effort to reshape its government. The city of Akron and Summit County are examining ways to collaborate in law enforcement.
Still, there is room for the region to act as a whole, developing more efficient and effective forms of government. With that in mind, Northeast Ohio would do well to form a task force, or something similar, to push the envelope in the realms of consolidation and collaboration. The first accomplishment would be pulling together the task force. The second would be pressing the many players to be true to their high-minded words about change and competitiveness.
Sixteen school districts in Northeast Ohio? Now that's the required revolution.
Get the full article here.
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