By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-923745.mp3
Memphis, TN – A measure to marry Memphis and Shelby County governments will be on the ballot November 2nd. Proponents of the merger often point outside the county to communities they say are thriving because of their consolidated governments.
The most recent consolidation in the U.S. took place in Kentucky in 2003 when the City of Louisville and Jefferson County moved in together and took the same name. Right away the city of Louisville, now called Louisville Metro, jumped from being the 67th largest city in the nation to the 16th; and the city of expanded from 60 square miles to an area more than six times that size, area-wise bigger than the city of New York.
Steve Haag helped plan for--and execute--the merger. He says it's a happy marriage that produced three children--efficiency in government, economic development, and better representation.
Hank Savitch takes a very different view of the union. Savitch is a professor in the Department of Urban & Public Affairs at the University of Louisville; he and a colleague studied the five years prior and the five years post-merger, "The performance was better prior to merger than after merger," Savitch said.
"Now that may have been a result of different circumstances," Savitch admits, "but, if anything, merger showed that there was no improvement and that was very much contrary to what the mayor claimed would happen in Louisville."
The mayor who helped push consolidation through, Jerry Abramson, is the only person Savitch sees benefiting, "If you're a politician you'd rather have the larger constituency. So now we have Abramson running for Lt. Governor."
But what about the argument--advanced here in Shelby County as well--that increased cooperation attracts businesses?
"There were differences between the county exec and the [city] mayor," Savitch says, "But when the question was posed to them in all these years can you name one business that didn't come to Louisville because they felt that we were split. People were really unable to name that."
Actually, Haag can name one--the Grizzlies. Haag says prior to merger the basketball team worked out an agreement with the city of Louisville then went to the county government expecting a done deal, but found something very different.
"They were dealing with a whole different entity and it was kind of surprising and a little bit hard for them to understand why things weren't working out together," Haag said.
Of course, Memphis managed to get that NBA team without being consolidated. Haag also says he thinks two Ford motor plants decided to stay in Jefferson county--and stay open--in part, because the governments consolidated, but he can't prove it.
"It does come down a little bit just to feeling," Haag said.
The biggest benefit to marriage, Haag says, is representation. Prior to merger, "If you lived in the unincorporated parts, you essentially were one of 200,000, 230,000 people that a commissioner had to represent. Now you have one representative per every 26,000 people. That's a huge difference, and not just in numbers," Haag said.
"When you have a person whose in that level of one in every 26,000, you're gonna see them at the grocery store, or at church, or at the school. I think it brings government much closer," Haag said.
Savitch says there are trade-offs, "On the other hand the power of those representatives is much diluted because they're sharing it with 20 some odd other members."
"I just do feel that the city is at a disadvantage, and I think will be progressively at a disadvantage as time goes by, because the suburbs will control more and more of the legislative agenda. They carry now two-thirds of the population. That's something that is not rarely considered. People think that central cities will profit by merger. They usually don't," Savitch said.
So how can two people have such different views of the same marriage? That's another story.