[Speed Gibson,
Tuesday August 31, 2004 at 11:24pm]
Consolidating County Government
Minnesota has 87 counties. California, with twice the area and many time the population has only 58 counties. It would appear we have too many.
History, geography, and especially agriculture were all factors that resulted in the current configuration, but it's out of date. The days of limited, slow car travel and communications are over. It was important for farmers to be near their county agent for advice, for example. Today, eMail and cellular phones provide even better support.
Therefore, we should be able to consolidate counties, reducing the fixed overhead. For example, in the southwestern corner, Pipestone, Murray, Rock and Nobles counties could be merged into a new larger county; let's call it Worthington County, after the largest city in this area.
An area this size, roughly the size of an average California county, and far less population than Hennepin County, should be very easy to manage. For those needing to drive to the county seat (Worthington most likely), would log at most 60 miles more, no trouble at all in a modern car, and again, that's the maximum. As it happens, Cottonwood and Jackson counties could also be added on this basis.
Metro counties are not immune either. Hennepin is big enough, but Ramsey could merge with Anoka, for example. And throughout all of this, nothing says the current lines cannot be moved. All told, I believe Minnesota could come down to as few as 20 counties, but 30 would be very workable.
Politically, it's a tough sell. The folks in the county seats to be eliminated (Pipestone, Slayton, and Luverne in my example) will object, though a large portion of the snowplows and other intrastructure would likely remain. But with the larger size and budget of the new county, services should improve. Functions that none could previously afford may now be plausible.
Better still, these new counties could take on some duties now managed by the state government.
Finally, with a much smaller count, we might actually know where those tornado warnings are when they list all of those existing counties you swear you never heard of.
History, geography, and especially agriculture were all factors that resulted in the current configuration, but it's out of date. The days of limited, slow car travel and communications are over. It was important for farmers to be near their county agent for advice, for example. Today, eMail and cellular phones provide even better support.
Therefore, we should be able to consolidate counties, reducing the fixed overhead. For example, in the southwestern corner, Pipestone, Murray, Rock and Nobles counties could be merged into a new larger county; let's call it Worthington County, after the largest city in this area.
An area this size, roughly the size of an average California county, and far less population than Hennepin County, should be very easy to manage. For those needing to drive to the county seat (Worthington most likely), would log at most 60 miles more, no trouble at all in a modern car, and again, that's the maximum. As it happens, Cottonwood and Jackson counties could also be added on this basis.
Metro counties are not immune either. Hennepin is big enough, but Ramsey could merge with Anoka, for example. And throughout all of this, nothing says the current lines cannot be moved. All told, I believe Minnesota could come down to as few as 20 counties, but 30 would be very workable.
Politically, it's a tough sell. The folks in the county seats to be eliminated (Pipestone, Slayton, and Luverne in my example) will object, though a large portion of the snowplows and other intrastructure would likely remain. But with the larger size and budget of the new county, services should improve. Functions that none could previously afford may now be plausible.
Better still, these new counties could take on some duties now managed by the state government.
Finally, with a much smaller count, we might actually know where those tornado warnings are when they list all of those existing counties you swear you never heard of.