| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
governments that have consolidated (i.e., voters approved the consolidation referendum) had higher spending prior to their consolidation (as measured by local government employment, payroll, and expenditures) compared to the average local government in the state. If these indicators are higher than those of the average local government in the state, this suggests that the consolidation was driven by the level of government spending. When citizens perceive spending to be “out of line,” consolidation is one way to address this concern. If, however, governments that have consolidated had lower spending or spending that was not statistically different from that of the average local government in the state, this can be interpreted as meaning that consolidation was driven by factors related to the quality of government and that citizens viewed consolidation as one way of improving their local government's quality. In light of these considerations, we found that service quality has been the impetus for consolidation.
In chapter 3, we focus on the effects of city-county consolidation. Using consolidation referendum data, we examine the impact of consolidation on local government employment, payroll, and expenditures. We found that consolidation had no measurable impact on these variables. Local governments that have consolidated do not have a smaller local government labor force, lower payroll, or lower expenditures than local governments that considered consolidation but ultimately did not do so.
We also examine the influence of consolidation on economic development, finding that consolidation has, at best, a limited effect on economic development. However, we did find intrastate differences, suggesting that context matters, as consolidation may have a positive effect in some states and a negative one in others. Relative to the other counties in the state, for example, Kansas City–Wyandotte, Kansas, experienced higher population growth and income growth after consolidation. In contrast, the consolidated counties in Montana experienced lower income growth relative to the nonconsolidated counties in the state, whereas consolidated counties in Louisiana experienced lower employment growth. Taken together, these results suggest that claims supporting the positive