It stands to reason, say some, that eliminating some of the overlapping layers of local government—villages, in particular—will save lots of money. The facts are more complicated.

In CGR’s experience after studying more than three dozen communities in the last five years or so, the operational savings from a simple merger are typically modest.  Yet this misses one of the important reasons for communities to review their local government structures—the capital budgets of local governments.  Decisions about capital investments are often made through the lens of a single local government—the individual town, village or school district. Even though these individual governments may be running their governments efficiently, many studies show that taxpayers are paying for more buildings, more equipment, and more people to manage them than would be needed if local government services were managed by thinking regionally. Four examples illustrate this point. Read more »