Jacksonville not alone with Consolidation

[Metro Jacksonville]

Jacksonville not alone with Consolidation



Jacksonville is well known for its consolidation with Duval County in 1968.  However, we're not alone. According to the National Association of Counties, there are a total of forty consolidated city-county governments across the United States.  Here's the list.


Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-dec-jacksonville-not-alone-with-consolidation

[vicupstate]

I knew about all of the larger cities, but had no idea so many smaller cities had consolidated, Georgia in particular. 

As someone you lives away from Jacksonville, consolidation has always been what Jax is most known for, until the Jaguars came to town. 

[Jason]

Very interesting.  I've heard of a few of them but had no idea that San Fran was consolidated.

[Ocklawaha]

Consolidation has likely saved us from being somewhere below the absolute bottom of performance of cities. Considering the amount of development that has occurred in the Southside and more recently north of the Trout River, little of that tax revenue would be finding it's way back to us if it were not included in the 'City.' Consolidation is also a great method for cost control by eliminating duplicate services. Having been around Butte, Montana and many of the smaller towns as well as isolated places like Yakutat, I believe a single source for services functions better. The City and Borough of Yakutat, as of the 2010 census, the population was 662.

[Tacachale]

^If we hadn't consolidated, it's more likely that the city would have annexed outlying areas, or that the county government would have emerged as more powerful than the city, or some combination of the two. That's what's happened with most of Florida's cities. Alternately, we may have pursued a semi-consolidated government like Miami-Dade. There are some downsides to consolidation, but for our conditions I think it was definitely a positive move for Jacksonville, and probably for a lot of the cities on that list.

[spuwho]

Nationally there is trend of thinking that there should be more consolidation to eliminate duplication of taxing bodies across common boundaries. If a certain city has fully consumed the boundaries of its county, then most of the county functions are probably redundant.

If a county has become fully urban, does it still need and soil and conservation district? Something formed to protect farmland during the depression?

[BackinJax05]

Cool stuff.

[vicupstate]

Columbia -Richland County SC are once again considering Consolidation. It would be a tough hill to climb but there seems to be a little more political support this time.

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article90107087.html