Merger answers difficult to find
Two centuries after the first of 33 city-county mergers in the United States, researchers still can't answer one key question: Do they work?
That question can't help but bedevil an effort to chart a path for the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
The most recent consolidation, Louisville in 2000, was driven by the loss of one-third of the city's population and the growth of surrounding Jefferson County.
Did the merger help? Not according to Hank Savitch, the Brown and Williamson professor of urban and public affairs at the University of Louisville, who is writing a book on the subject to be called "Transformation Without Change."
His 2004 paper on the merger, and subsequent research, found neither savings nor the economic boon promised by consolidation's business backers in a high-dollar ad blitz. "Really, to be blunt about it, it was a pack of lies," he said.
For a glowing review of consolidation's development benefits, go west. "In Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., it was a very important turning point," said Suzanne M. Leland, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and co-author of the coming book "City-County Consolidation: Promises Made, Promises Kept."
Merged in 1997, that city-county saw a big jump in development in its western end, anchored by a speedway that became a major tourist attraction. Total real estate values rose 76 percent in a decade, allowing tax rates to drop 25 percent, according to information provided by Wyandotte County. Permits for new single-family homes are triple what they were before consolidation -- though population declines haven't stopped, and have only slowed slightly.
