Cost ramifications of municipal consolidation: A comparative analysis
Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management
ISSN: 1096-3367
Article publication date: 1 March 2011
Abstract
In 2001, the first municipal consolidation occurred in over 100 years in Michigan between two cities and one village in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula, forming the City of Iron River. The three units of government combined to have a population of 3,391 within the newly incorporated boundaries. Driving the consolidation was continual population loss and erosion of the economic tax base of the individual municipal governments since the 1960s. This study sought to assess whether, five years after the consolidation, the governments had saved money as compared to a peer group of governments in Michigan. The findings indicate that the new city of Iron River was able to provide some evidence of cost control and savings following the consolidation.
Citation
Martin, J. and Scorsone, E.A. (2011), "Cost ramifications of municipal consolidation: A comparative analysis", Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 311-337. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBAFM-23-03-2011-B001
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011 by PrAcademics Press