| Chapter 2: | Government Consolidation |
Chapter 2
Government Consolidation
The type of consolidation that has received attention both from the media and in the academic literature is city-county consolidation. As of 2003, 38 city-county consolidated governments existed in the United States.1 The first to be documented in the United States was New Orleans–Orleans Parish in Louisiana, which consolidated in 1805. The most recent was Cusseta City–Chattahoochee County, Georgia, in 2003. These are only two of the consolidations that have been attempted. This sort of consolidation usually occurs through a voter referendum process.2 Since 1970, just over 100 communities have had consolidation referenda on the ballot (some more than once), and fewer than 20% have passed.3 Leland and Thurmaier (2005) noted that often the consolidation effort fails while the charter specifying the details of the consolidation is being drafted—that is, before the measure even reaches the ballot—because constituencies are unable to agree on the various components of consolidation. In this chapter, we investigate the factors that are related to successful consolidation referenda.