Local Government Consolidation in the United States By Dagney Fa ...

better coordination of decision making. Third, there are direct benefits: County residents may have greater access to services and city residents may have access to a broader tax base after consolidation. We used the city-county population ratio to measure the size of the city relative to the county.

We measured the similarity of city and county constituencies using per capita income. Sorenson (2006) proposed that regions with similar income levels are more likely to merge; he used the per capita tax base as the measure to examine the determinants of municipal consolidation in Norway. If there is a large difference between the income levels in the city and those in the county—as is the case in most urban areas in the United States—the county will have less incentive to merge with the city. In this situation, there is often the fear that consolidation will lead to higher tax rates in the county. We used the ratio of per capita income in the city to the per capita income in the rest of county. If the variable is significant, this indicates that differences in per capita income did affect the referendum result and that the similarity of the two jurisdictions mattered.

Many cities and counties in the U.S. sample have experienced repeated consolidation attempts. Of the 17 successful consolidation attempts between 1970 and 2003 with complete data, six (35.3%) had multiple referenda (up to five attempts) before the consolidation was approved. Of the 90 unsuccessful attempts, 17 (18.9%) had multiple (up to four) attempts. With each consolidation attempt, voters become more familiar with the idea of consolidation. In addition, with each successive attempt, the details of the consolidation agreement can be changed to gain voter support.

Matsusaka (2004) proposed that ballot initiatives occur when elected representatives choose policies that their constituents do not support; the ballot initiative allows voters to “bring policies back into line with their preferences relatively quickly” (p. 92). We are particularly interested in determining if there is statistical evidence to indicate that consolidation is driven by the level of government spending or the quality of government services. Specifically, we have tested whether governments that