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Reassessing Local Government Amalgamation

A Frontier analysis of US Census data indicates the reverse, that higher expenditures per capita are generally associated with larger municipal units and that consolidated governments are more costly than governments typified by multiple government units.
Published on February 5, 2004
Wendell Cox
Latest News | Backgrounder | Municipal Government

Executive Summary

  • Provincial governments in Canada have actively promoted municipal amalgamations with the claim that overall costs per capita for taxpayers are lower with larger urban government units.
  • An analysis of US Census data indicates the reverse, that higher expenditures per capita are generally associated with larger municipal units and that consolidated governments are more costly than governments typified by multiple government units.
  • Many of the world’s largest and most successful urban areas have numerous local government units. For example, the Paris area has more than 1,300 municipal governments and the Tokyo area has more than 225.

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