Overdue streamlining

Sunday, May 30, 2010 | 2:04 a.m.

A couple of stories caught our eye during the past week about how states and local governments across the country are weighing dramatic steps at streamlining how they conduct business to help them deal with budgetary woes.

In Nebraska, The New York Times reported Monday, a state lawmaker has proposed cutting by half the 93 counties that constitute the state. In Indiana, meanwhile, the Legislature is considering a plan to get rid of the state’s 1,000-plus township boards. In Missouri, the change being contemplated isn’t as radical as what’s being proposed in Nebraska and Indiana, but it’s significant nonetheless. The Times reports that Missouri is looking at offering incentives to counties to consolidate some of their services and that it is considering combining state agencies that oversee secondary and higher education, maybe even putting in place a four-day workweek for state government.

There also is renewed interest among cities and counties to merge, USA Today reports, creating new efficiencies, eliminating bureaucracies and saving taxpayer dollars along the way. In November, voters will decide whether to merge Memphis and Shelby County, Tenn. Additionally, there is talk of consolidation among Milwaukee and Milwaukee County, Wis., and Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pa.

According to USA Today, there are roughly 40 merged city-county governments. But it has been quite awhile since the last merger. The newspaper reports that the last consolidation involving a large city with its county was in 2003, when Louisville and Jefferson County, Ky., came together. Following the merger, Mayor Jerry Abramson tells USA Today that the number of employees is down 22 percent from the total of the separated governments.

Despite the positive effect that Abramson has seen, it should be remembered that consolidation doesn’t come easy. Indeed, voters had turned down three previous efforts at merging Louisville and Jefferson County. And while there are serious discussions of merging state agencies and wholesale consolidation of local governments, for now much of it is talk. The fact is politicians and the people who put them in office — the voters — talk a big game about cutting government, but often are reluctant to make the tough choices. For politicians, it might mean giving up their elected office if it’s about consolidation of local governments, and for residents they might not want to give up what they see as a smaller, more responsive agency that they’ve come to rely on.

In Nevada, there isn’t an imminent move to consolidate local governments, but there are promising signs. The 2009 Legislature directed Clark and Washoe counties to get together with their respective municipal governments and report back to the Legislature’s staff this fall, identifying those government functions that are consolidated and those that are being considered for consolidation.

There are excellent examples of government consolidation in Southern Nevada, such as Metro Police, Las Vegas Valley Water District and Clark County Regional Flood Control District. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman would like to see even more consolidation of services, including public works, parks, information technology, communications and planning.

We would like to see more merging of services, getting taxpayers a bigger bang for their buck. For that matter, it would seem to make sense for Clark County and Las Vegas to consider merging. Past efforts to consolidate the two have been blocked by turf wars, but if we can’t move forward during this economic crisis, will we ever be able to do so?

The situation facing local and state governments, as they try to cope during these tough economic times, demands that they think smarter and take bold steps. We’ll leave you with this spot-on comment that Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, said to the Times: “We can incrementally hobble and muddle through, or we can stand back and be more strategic. That’s the question: Whether this will be the time when these ideas actually get carried out, or whether this is going to be a whole lot of reports that sit on a shelf.”