Full Version: County mergers-when should they occur?
I have to give credit to Victoria Silverwolf's Fulton County split thread for inspiring this topic. I was struck that Fulton county had the population greater than that of six states. 
In my own state, nine counties have a population of less than 1,000. 7 counties rank in the top 15 in regards to being the smallest in the nation. To me, the idea of county merging holds great promise. You have the ability to streamline services, reduce the tax burden for essential services such as fire, EMT, social services, and county offices. It is due to this highly brilliant insight that I've created:
Nebraska29's handy-dandy, fantastico, uber-brilliant county merger plan.
The bill would read:
Counties are to merge when; (1)Two or more counties are contiguous, and when each individual county possesses a population of less than 2,000 according to census findings; (2)Mergers that occur cannot be greater than 20,000 square miles.
Questions for debate:
1.)At what point do you believe that counties should merge?
2.)What are your thoughts about Nebraska29's handy-dandy, fantastico, uber-brilliant county merger plan? What are some of the strengths or weaknesses that you see in it?
In my own state, nine counties have a population of less than 1,000. 7 counties rank in the top 15 in regards to being the smallest in the nation. To me, the idea of county merging holds great promise. You have the ability to streamline services, reduce the tax burden for essential services such as fire, EMT, social services, and county offices. It is due to this highly brilliant insight that I've created:Nebraska29's handy-dandy, fantastico, uber-brilliant county merger plan.
The bill would read:
Counties are to merge when; (1)Two or more counties are contiguous, and when each individual county possesses a population of less than 2,000 according to census findings; (2)Mergers that occur cannot be greater than 20,000 square miles.
Questions for debate:
1.)At what point do you believe that counties should merge?
2.)What are your thoughts about Nebraska29's handy-dandy, fantastico, uber-brilliant county merger plan? What are some of the strengths or weaknesses that you see in it?
Interesting questions.
1.)At what point do you believe that counties should merge?
When a majority of the voters in the two (or more) counties involved choose to do so; or, when a super-majority (let's say something like 70% or 75%) of the elected county officials choose to do so. I would certainly not make it mandatory for two counties to merge, no matter how small.
But that doesn't quite answer your question. It's probably a good idea for counties to merge when at least one is so small in population that it has difficulty providing the most basic functions of county government (schools, fire protection, law enforcement, and so on.) Some of these services may be provided by towns or states, and such a system might be enough for a small county; but if the citizens of a small county are undergoing hardship because their government is too weak, it would make sense to join forces with another.
2.)What are your thoughts about Nebraska29's handy-dandy, fantastico, uber-brilliant county merger plan? What are some of the strengths or weaknesses that you see in it?
It seems pretty decent. I like the proviso that avoids counties that are vast in area, although there may be times when this is acceptable. (For example, if you have a vast tract of desert and a few cities in a county, the physical size of the county may not be an issue.)
One tiny quibble I might make is that some small counties exist because of geophysical considerations that may be hard to overcome. I'm talking about rivers and mountains and such. It may be hard to provide services across such barriers. (Here in southeastern Tennessee, there is one county -- I forget which one -- which is considering splitting into two parts, even though the population is small, because it is divided by ridges and valleys into two parts which are connected only by one highway.)
In other words, each situation has to be considered individually.
1.)At what point do you believe that counties should merge?
When a majority of the voters in the two (or more) counties involved choose to do so; or, when a super-majority (let's say something like 70% or 75%) of the elected county officials choose to do so. I would certainly not make it mandatory for two counties to merge, no matter how small.
But that doesn't quite answer your question. It's probably a good idea for counties to merge when at least one is so small in population that it has difficulty providing the most basic functions of county government (schools, fire protection, law enforcement, and so on.) Some of these services may be provided by towns or states, and such a system might be enough for a small county; but if the citizens of a small county are undergoing hardship because their government is too weak, it would make sense to join forces with another.
2.)What are your thoughts about Nebraska29's handy-dandy, fantastico, uber-brilliant county merger plan? What are some of the strengths or weaknesses that you see in it?
It seems pretty decent. I like the proviso that avoids counties that are vast in area, although there may be times when this is acceptable. (For example, if you have a vast tract of desert and a few cities in a county, the physical size of the county may not be an issue.)
One tiny quibble I might make is that some small counties exist because of geophysical considerations that may be hard to overcome. I'm talking about rivers and mountains and such. It may be hard to provide services across such barriers. (Here in southeastern Tennessee, there is one county -- I forget which one -- which is considering splitting into two parts, even though the population is small, because it is divided by ridges and valleys into two parts which are connected only by one highway.)
In other words, each situation has to be considered individually.
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