Too small?
Consolidation of municipalities eyed Supermarkets have long superseded corner grocery stores in most communities. Pennsylvania’s local governments, however, are a throwback to the corner-store era.
With 2,562 cities, boroughs and townships, there is an average of one municipality for every 18 square miles and every 4,850 people. Many boroughs, in particular, are much smaller than the average.
Anyone driving through the commonwealth will encounter one municipality after another every few miles or less. Many communities provide their own police department, road crew, water and sewer systems, parks, land-use planning, zoning and additional services.
Two bills pending in the Legislature propose doing for local government what supermarkets did for grocery shopping. A state House measure would amend the state Constitution to make counties the basic unit of local government, enable them to establish municipalities and give them jurisdiction over law enforcement, land use, health and safety. A Senate bill would establish a commission to review the status of counties and municipalities and recommend possible mergers where property values and populations are declining.
Many municipalities have rejected the idea, passing resolutions opposing any state-mandated mergers of municipalities.
Officials claim that no one has ever proven that bigger, centralized government is better or even more cost-effective than township government. They also claim that county-based governments have higher tax burdens than smaller governments.
Supporters of Pennsylvania’s fractious fiefdoms are fond of saying that bigger isn’t better. We would counter that smaller isn’t necessarily better, either.
Many counties, for example, have had a centralized 911 emergency dispatch network for 19 years. We have no doubt that this is far more efficient and far less costly than if each town had to dispatch all police, fire and ambulance calls within its borders.
We also point out that strong, centralized county governments are the norm in most states south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Maryland, for instance, has no townships, so the three-quarters of its 6 million people who live outside incorporated towns and cities receive all their municipal services from county government. The larger suburban counties have full-time police, fire and ambulance departments and provide a wide range of services from road repair to community colleges. Countywide school districts (funded by county taxes) serve all residents.
We can’t say whether Maryland’s countywide government is less costly than Pennsylvania’s fragmented system, since the level and types of services aren’t necessarily comparable.
However, the idea of possibly consolidating Pennsylvania’s plethora of principalities should not be dismissed out of hand. The state should at least undertake a study to see whether counties or regional municipalities could provide services more efficiently and effectively than individual municipalities.
Past legislative efforts to abolish state liquor stores and elected tax collectors have gone nowhere, so we don’t expect the consolidation of municipalities to fare any better. While corner stores have gone by the wayside in the private sector, they are still going strong in government.
Bucks County Courier Times