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Welcome to Ohio, where almost all government is local
Published on Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
The fear (Ohio has 1,308 townships) is that academic research will underscore the heavy cost of the state's many layers of local government, fueling consolidation, a highly sensitive subject among township trustees. So the commission will meet at the end of the month to craft a mission statement.
And beyond that? What can't be ignored — by the commission, local governments or the legislature — is the pressure generated by the state's financial crisis. Larry Wolpert, the former state representative who sponsored the legislation forming the Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration and who now sits on the 15-member panel, is correct. The crisis is long-term. The commission must foster an honest conversation about the costs and benefits of the state having almost 4,000 taxing authorities.
Preserving accountability and quick response are important, as Cochran suggests. So is preserving service levels through cooperative efforts that direct increasingly scarce tax dollars away from political and administrative overhead to citizens.
More, maintaining overlapping layers of local government is ill-suited to the regional and statewide strategies needed to compete in a global economy. The layers present a significant barrier to economic expansion by frustrating companies examining sites in Ohio. In that way, accountability is made more difficult, response less timely.
The mission statement may serve a useful purpose. The commission's final report, due in July 2010, will end up in a legislature whose members have strong ties to local government. To have a chance of success, the panel must gauge carefully the potential backlash. After all, the legislature last session failed to abolish mayor's courts, another example of how 19th-century government survives in Ohio.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 01:31 PM, 01/07/2009
There is one solution to the economic morass the state is in. What sets us apart from the South and the West.....Eliminate public sector collective bargaining.
Posted 01:31 PM, 01/07/2009
There is one solution to the economic morass the state is in. What sets us apart from the South and the West.....Eliminate public sector collective bargaining.
