Part 2 of Big Paper

Government consolidation has been a part of the U.S.

for over 200 years. Even though it is not that common, it

has still been a factor in County governments. The number

of local governments has a net decrease of 31,801 units.

This is mostly due to the rising number of school district

consolidations and not government. School district

consolidations have caused school districts to decline by

more than 79%.

The first known governments to consolidate in the U.S.

were New Orleans and New Orleans Parish in 1805. Since the

first consolidation, only 32 more have followed. Out of

these 32, only 24 are considered true consolidations.Today

there are 3,069 County governments, which makes the percent

of consolidation less than 1%. The time period from 1960 to

1976 was the biggest consolidation period in America. There

were a total of fourteen county consolidations during this

period. Since then, only 8 county government consolidations

have taken place.

Consolidating Memphis City and Shelby County has been

the center of issues for some time now. Although it is a

fairly new topic to most of us, it actually can be traced

back to 1962. The idea was quickly shut down and did not

come about again until 1993. This is when Mayor Willie

Herenton first brought it up. In order to move forward in

the consolidation project, Mayor Herenton wanted to take a

look back. He wanted to study other Tennessee counties that

had consolidated. This was one of the best ideas that he

has ever had. Knowing the history of something gives you an

insight on what will happen in the future!

The first counties to consolidate in Tennessee were

Nashville and Davidson Counties on April 1, 1963.

In Tennessee, between 1958 and 1991 there were 15

consolidation votes with only 2 successes (Nashville-

Davidson County and Lynchburg-Moore County). Statistics

show that voter support for consolidation research groups

are at about 73%, but the percent of voters who actually

support the establishment is a suprising 47%. Since 1991,

there has only been one successful consolidation in

Tennessee (Hartsville-Trousdale County). Although approval

percentages are really low, it does not stop the counties

from trying.

People wonder, if consolidation is so controversial,

where did it come from, and how did it come about? The

intent of consolidation was to strenghten the government

and make it less complicated. Many counties have local

governments that need a change. Things are out of order, or

they face major financial deficits. The idea of

consolidation was to merge the two governments and make

thing more stronger and effective. With the consolidation

of governments, many improvements were meant to be made.

The thought was that by combining, it would decrease the

amount of money needed to be spent by the counties. The

concept would be much like consolidating credit debt. When

first brought up, the issue seemed like a genius idea,

because no downfalls were known. Other issues of

consolidation came along with the government. Issues

consisted of schools, roads,fire and police departments,

and simple things such as buildings. School has always been

a major concern. As we all know, some school systems are

better than others. By consolidating, will this bring the

good schools down, or the the bad schools up? There is

really no proven right answer to this matter. Other simple

problems were, Who would be over the trash pickup and sewer

problems as well as recycling? These problems may be small,

but they are a huge problem for the citizens that live in

the consolidated areas. One of the biggest issues on this

matter is, if money is saved, how will it be used in the

future? These issues cause consolidation to be

controversial.