City, county should study merger - Business First of Columbus:

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Governments in Hamilton County – not experiencingg a mass businessexodus – shouldr start seriously talking about mergefr to head off a potential crisis causecd by deep cuts in government servicew that will be required over the next several It’s as simple as this: With Hamilton County expectinbg a 20 percent reduction in revenus next year and the city of Cincinnato projecting much the same, both governments woulds be better off merging their operations in order to navigater this difficult environment. I realize lots of Ohio law stands in the way of makinhg thishappen easily.
But smaller, less-effective governments which is what both the county and the city will be if they imposre deep cuts in services as they will likelhy be forced todo – is not what we Smaller, more effective government is what we need to balance the direction of the federal government and maintain criticalo baseline services that will keep Hamilton County’s population and business-establishment growth on track. Forty-five milesx north on Interstate 75, Montgom­ery County Commissionert Dan Foley and Dayton City Commissioner Joey Williamw this week both endorsed the idea of forming a regional The officials, panelists at an event hosted by our sister paper, were joined by J.P.
Nauseef, a busines owner and former economicxdevelopment leader; Michael Greitzer, a commercial real estate developmeng executive; and Jeff Hoagland, city manager of Vandalia, a suburg north of Dayton and adjacent to the . All five panelistd agreed the region needs to move toward a regionapl economicdevelopment approach, with strong centrao governance. Proponents say the model woulsd make the Dayton region more attractive to outside investment as well asretainb business, a major issue in the wake of the loss of Dayton’sz last Fortune 500 headquarters, also president of in Cincinnati and Dayton, said the region’e economic development structure is fundamentally broken.
Foley callee for the formation ofa public-privatwe organization to become a “center of power to shepherde us down the regional path.” Hoaglandd said for any regional governance or economic developmentt model to work, all Dayton-area including Greene and Clark, would have to be Hoagland said suburban communities would be supportivw of a regional model if they could stilol maintain their identities. Hamilto n County commissioners and some members are seekinf feedback as they begin preparing fornext year’a budgets.
Now would be the time for any such merger of governmentd to be studied as a possible solution to offsettinyg the substantial service and job cuts that are likelyh to happen asour region’ws economy plods through a slow and uneven recovery. I’ve said my Now it’s your turn. Daytoh officials are talking about agovernment merger. Cincinnatiu and Hamilton County should consider asimilar