Monday, February 6, 2012

In Down Economic Times, Athens-Clarke County Government Becomes an Example of Efficiency


As costs become a bigger problem for local governments in a tough economy,  consolidation of city and county governments has become a recent trend, local government expert Harry Hayes presented to a journalism class at the University of Georgia Monday morning.
The Carl Vinson Institute of Government faculty member went on to explain, “with the economic crisis that we are in, people are looking at their local governments and asking how can we reduce costs, and so consolidation is a pretty hot topic around the country, and here in Georgia”.
Although Athens-Clarke County consolidated in 1991 due to a lengthy grassroots effort from local citizens, consolidation is hard to get passed “because Georgia is not one of the states with citizen initiatives” and “elected officials are faced with the opportunity to lose their job if people vote for consolidation," Hayes explained.
            Nevertheless, Hayes pointed to cities and counties like Macon-Bibb, Dalton-Whitfield and Milledgeville-Baldwin, who are all making efforts to consolidate their governments.
            Although Hayes has no way to rate the success of consolidation efforts, he knows of no movement in any area that has consolidated governments where they are trying to reverse its effect.

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