Krompak says metropolitan goverment offers solutions…
Democratic candidate for Lucas County Commissioner Ben Krompak held a press conference today, the remarks he made are below:
Metropolitan Government Solutions To Strengthen Economy, Improve Public Safety, and Save Taxpayers Money
Today I am offering a plan to reinvent local government and lay the foundation for a more prosperous future for our county by taking on the challenge of fragmented and duplicative government.
Released last month by the Greater Ohio Policy Center and The Brookings Institution, the report Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy (link) details how fragmented government is holding Ohio back:
“While the proliferation of local governments and the fragmentation of the state into tiny ‘little box’ jurisdictions may satisfy residents’ desire for accessible government, it also creates a staggering array of costs, such as duplication of infrastructure, staffing, and services, and a race-to-the-bottom competition among multiple municipalities for desirable commercial, industrial, and residential tax base. Perhaps most damaging is the fact that fragmented regions are less competitive than more cohesive metropolitan regions.“
Our communities can no longer afford this outdated, inefficient model of fragmented government and senseless duplication. Metro government solutions will save money, strengthen public safety, and make our region more competitive in a global economy. This is just as important to families in the suburbs as it is to families in Toledo. We can deliver better value for all Lucas County taxpayers.
As Commissioner, I will:
• Seek bilateral negotiations between Lucas County and the City of Toledo to begin consolidating departments and operations wherever sensible. Consolidating operations with the city of Toledo will help to stabilize our county’s core city and achieve greater efficiencies for all county taxpayers. We should explore merging the Sheriff’s office and Toledo Police, the county and city prosecutor’s office, information services, economic development, and any other departments that duplicate efforts.
• Convene a countywide “Solutions Summit,” inviting leaders from every community in the county to discuss opportunities for collaboration and savings. Mergers aren’t the only way to work together to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Let’s identify every opportunity for entities to jointly deliver services and engage in joint purchasing.
• Aggressively lobby leaders in Columbus to take steps recommended by the Restoring Prosperity report to encourage collaboration between jurisdictions. The report recommends changing state law to make local government tax sharing explicitly permitted, creating a commission to study the costs of local government and realign state and local funding, catalyzing a network of public sector leaders to promote high performance government, support the creation of regional business plans, and reward counties and metros that adopt innovative governance and service delivery.
We have to start doing things differently. If cooperation remains a topic for white papers and blue ribbon commissions for another decade, then public safety and other essential services will suffer and our economy will continue to lag behind more competitive regions. Now is the time to make regionalism real.
Yes we do need new ideas.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:22 amTerrible idea that is neither new or original. This idea has been debunked many times and does not achieve what it promises.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:32 pmAs I’ve said previously, I do think there are some things that can be combined. For example, going with common suppliers, trying to use common buildings, sharing support staff like IT services, security forces for those buildings, administrative staff, etc.
I do find it interesting that the item he keeps bringing up is merging the Sheriff’s office with the Toledo Police Department, if only for the fact that both the Sheriff’s office and TPD are trying to find money to keep functioning whether it be from charging more to where the Sheriff patrols or more in taxes. Putting two groups together that lose money does not normally equal a surplus of money.
What does “local government tax sharing explicitly permitted” mean?
March 30th, 2010 at 2:49 pmA policy analysis was done on this WAY back in 1992.
The conclusion,
“The trend toward regional government, however, is likely to exacerbate the problems it is intended to solve. Although there are legitimate concerns about cooperation among local governments, particularly on large public projects such as road and sewer systems, a more consolidated local government structure would probably decrease the ability of local governments to provide public goods efficiently and cost-effectively. Attempts to consolidate governmental authority imply that public goods and services are best handled by a single comprehensive organization. Experiences with regional attempts to solve local problems have confirmed the worst fears of opponents of regional government about the excesses of monopoly government. Moreover, the private sector, with its more innovative and flexible alternatives, has often been more efficient than larger, bureaucratically controlled local governments.”
You can read the whole thing here: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1026&full=1
March 30th, 2010 at 4:48 pmDid you read the new report from Brookings Institute? I linked it as a part of Krompak’s statement. It comes up with different conclusions and things have changed since the 1990’s…
March 30th, 2010 at 4:55 pmGood government is reliant on good leaders and a good citizenry. For Brookings analysis to work, it likely would require angels to run it. Last I checked, they moved to burbs as well.
I personally, based on no data, cannot believe that anyone would want the same incompetence that has run the city/county into deficits to have more jurisdiction over the townships which are the last haven of some commonsense and growth in this area.
We’ve seen how well consolidation within the city (and school system) has worked out; declining quality and responsiveness to the citizen at an ever increasing cost (which is the nature of a monopoly). Why would we want to extend that?
Bad idea in 1992 and a bad idea 2010. Kompak, go back to the drawing board my friend.
If anything, Toledo is too big (geographically speaking) for the amount of services it is trying to provide with the staff it can afford. Dividing the city up into smaller semi or fully autonomous units that are responsible for their own security, infrastructure, fire protection, education, etc, is probably a more sound and prudent way to go.
Krompak, you can steal that last idea buddy; that one is free
March 30th, 2010 at 8:01 pmglasscitypatriot,
Being a policy professional that has lived outside of Toledo for sometime (education and such), your assumptions are falsely misleading. Dividing the city up in smaller units is creating more government and causing great inefficiencies and overlapping. If you consolidate, there will be less incentive to tax because costs are more spread out and individual municipal governments won’t have overlapping in provision of services.
If you knew about our government, but schools are individual governments into themselves and not a part of city or municipal government in terms of tax bases. When has their been consolidation in our area of services? Almost all municipal entities in our region has had tough costs and the suburbs only get strength from having a strong core. The weaker the core, the weaker the suburbs.
April 1st, 2010 at 3:42 pm