A study put together by researchers at two local universities, supported by a local foundation, and published under the auspices of the National Conference on Citizenship finds that Pittsburgh is a “civically health city”. By that Pittsburghers are more likely to volunteer, attend meetings, talk to public officials, etc. at a rate greater than the state and the nation.
Separate findings in the study show Pittsburghers have a strong attachment to their neighborhood and their local government and “are general satisfied with the complex system of local governments”. Whether there is a widespread correlation between number of governments and civic health is not clear: the study notes that the number of governments in the Pittsburgh region is second only to Chicago, but the 2010 study on the Windy City found its civic health was terribly low and essentially “…on life support”.
When survey responses to satisfaction with local government were divided into responses from the City, close in suburbs, and further out suburbs in Allegheny County it was found that the former two areas wanted “better services” and the latter wanted “lower taxes”. A majority of respondents in each area were in favor of service sharing. In the ideal world better service at a lower cost would be accomplished, and that is where it is incumbent upon those that push mergers and consolidations have to specifically show where the savings to taxpayers are to be achieved and what it will mean for service delivery. If a consolidation is viewed as a bailout of a troubled municipality it would likely be dead on arrival.
That brings up the last point as the study states that the effort to consolidate the governments of the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County is dead, having breathed its last in 2009 and that there was “a broad consensus that such a merger was both impractical and unlikely”. Whom was part of this consensus? Most likely the residents who would have to vote on the proposal but certainly not key opinion makers and public officials in the area, even though the research of the pro-merger group noted as early as February 2007 that merging the City and the County and keeping a higher tax rate in the City to protect the remainder of the County from its accumulated costs would run afoul of the Pennsylvania Constitution. In 2008 the Mayor of Pittsburgh opined that a merger would be “the best hope for economic growth and survival in the years to come”. As late as 2009 one local advocate noted that investment would go to places with streamlined government and avoid places that don’t. And even in 2010 a newspaper editorial wondered why a ballot question had not been placed in front of the voters despite all the forthcoming evidence against it.
