in 1997, wyandotte county, ks and kansas city, ks merged to form a unified government, and as far as i can tell, has been a reasonable success considering wyandotte county (~160,000) is losing population.
^Ironically, just when the City has stabilized in population, the County will be losing some population. So then, boosting our population numbers would be among the silliest reasons to re-enter or merge.
Ultimately, it has to make financial sense for both parties. But since our police, fire, schools, courts and much more would all still be run independently, I just don't see huge financial gains for the City, especially if property tax bills would jump dramatically (as Odenwald correctly predicts) yet an earnings tax remain for then only one of 90-some cities within St. Louis County.
I prefer the term "ravage." Wouldn't you just love for the city to "ravage" the county. .... thats probably how a lot of countains would see it anyway ..... but in my opinion that county is just askign for it. Sitting around in well paved streets and flaunting her tax revenue
^ Oh I don't know about that. If the City joins the County, then there are a few clear regional benefits and City benefits.
1. As a municpality, St. Louis City no long be a City on the hook for regional expenditures (as much).
2. As a municipality, St. Louis County will have a vested interest in the sucess of St. Louis City. (read: reason to focus investment into the City)
3. As a municipality, St. Louis City might be able to swing County wide votes on important things like Metrolink funding.
Beyond that there are a number of areas for consolidation:
Library
Parks (imagine the City turning over Tower Grove, Forest Park, and Carandolet, and Fairgrounds over as County Parks, I wonder how much that would save each year)
Duplicate County Offices
Road Maintiance
I also wonder about the net tax change. For example, if St. Louis City saw a revaluation of its property taxes that would give the City and County with a increase in revenue, combined with savings in other areas, could the City find a way to reduce or remove the earnings tax?
2:You think that if St. Louis City enters the County then automatically revenue sharing will begin? Suddenly the affluent tax payers will support the poor and black City? I seriously doubt this will happen. St. Louis County is doing a bad job at this internally. Public support for redistributive tax policy will not change if St. Louis City enters the arena.
Internal consolidation should within St. Louis County. If we entered the County there would only be more fighting assuming we this actually could occur.
Library: There is no reason to consolidate the two systems.
Parks: The smaller City parks have set budgets which do not seem to change. At least TGP's budget does not change. Regional taxing districts would do better to support regional parks.
County Offices: I would agree that we do not need both a License Collector and Revenue Collector. There is probably a way to merge these offices independent of a city-county consolidation.
For me it seems the internal governance of St. Louis County needs to be addressed. St. Louis City could decrease the number of Wards as well. I don't see how merging two fragmented governments would help as it would only create a bigger even more fragmented structure. On a regional level, once internal consolidation occurs, then greater cooperation or merger can occur.
With re-entry into the County, there are gains for the City in reduced county functions, as well as a counter-intuitive gain to the County in increased tax base, but that still leaves many questions.
Would City residents be willing to use Clayton for County offices, since it would be the most accessible location county-wide? Some functions may call for satellite locations maintained at City Hall, just as the County now has some North, South and West County satelites. But the reduction in space at City Hall from reduced county-like functions currently operating there would free up space to relocate more municipal functions currently leasing space outside City Hall, such as the development agencies.
Could the two state court circuits be merged? The case load is heavy enough to retain court facilities in both Clayton and Downtown, but could they share funding, case loads and jury pools? Jurors would need to report randomly to Downtown or Clayton, such that a case tried at either location would still be tapping into the same county-wide jury pool, thereby helping balance cases without any bias for more favorable juries at either location of the consolidated circuit.
Could County Police and SLMPD be merged under re-entry, such metropolitan force serving the City of St. Louis, unincorporated areas of St. Louis County, and any municipalities (usually smaller ones) contracting their police services? Most cities (Clayton, Chesterfield, Florissant, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, University City, etc.) would still very much have their own police. This would also be an opportunity to return SLMPD's board to local control, albeit a board then representative of both the City and County. Likewise, residency requirements could then be within increased St. Louis County.
How would consolidated boards and commissions handle increased representation of the City (like on County's TIF Commission) or County (like on the City's Airport Commission)? For that matter, would the County Council be adjusted? The most logical change to the Council would be an increase in the number of districts most equal to the increase in total county population, such new districts falling mostly within the City of St. Louis.
Last but certainly not least, would the City of St. Louis become a point-of-sale city like Richmond Heights or a revenue-pool city like Chesterfield in regard to its sales taxes? Granted, after re-entry, the changed county-wide electorate of the City and other less sales-tax fortunate cities could team together to force more revenue sharing.
But such unknowns may be ultimately why County voters would most strongly oppose re-entry, especially all the future ballot issues, upon which current City voters could vote as County voters. Of course, the County is already solidly leaning Democratic, there are now more African-Americans in the County than the City, and yet re-entry would still create a majority white, albeit strongly diverse, County. While City African-Americans would complain about lost clout, the irony of Dooley's leadership in the majority-white County and Slay's in the majority-minority City should help ease such unfounded fears. Now, it's only upto County conservatives, like Odenwald, to admit that the County is becoming more like the City and even without re-entry, they'll forever be the minority. So then, if City blacks and County whites have less to lose politically by switching from the status quo, it's definitely time to start talking more seriously about re-entry.
