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Local Government Consolidation: Why the Savings are Sometimes Disappointing |
Why maintain two police departments when you can consolidate into one? Why have two school districts, etc.? On the surface, the advantages of consolidation are obvious. Suppose you have two factories, each with a boss, an accountant, a lawyer, and 100 workers. If you merge the two factories, you don’t need two bosses or two accountants, or two lawyers, and you may not even need all 200 workers. You can cut out the unneeded overhead and save money easily. In organizational theory, the concept is known as economies of scale. Why not apply that to government? The answer is, it won’t always work in government. |
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