"BIGGER IS BETTER" - Hey, You Learned That Yet?

(11/09/2004)

By Bob Weaver History has taught us that bigger is better - consolidation and merger will save money and be more effective. Well, it always sounds good. School consolidation was to have saved taxpayers millions, reduce operational costs by closing all those small community-based buildings and moving them into those giant modern structures where kids could be bused up to an hour-and-a-half one way. A commission charged with finding ways to restructure West Virginia's local governments will be making some recommendations for new legislation to make it easier for local governments to merge. State Senator Brooks McCabe of Kanawha County says the proposed legislation would allow counties or municipalities to merge without having to pass a constitutional amendment. The commission was created by Governor Wise, who suggested that West Virginia's system of 55 county governments (plus some municipalities, school boards, health boards) have become too costly. The commission's proposal would cover city-municipality consolidation or the creation of metro governments and county consolidation. Their proposed bill would appropriate money to help local governments cope with the costs of restructuring. Wirt, the state's smallest and most unfunded county, would have been the vehicle to commence county consolidation, but local voters decided to keep it around a while by passing an operating levy. Many Wirt voters understood consolidation with a larger "better operated" county would mean their taxes would increase, immediately.

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