An Attempt to Shrink Local Governments
Vol. III, No. 176 - House Bill 520 seeks to reduce duplicative government services
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Ohio leaders are once again asking a big question: how can communities keep good local services while also keeping costs under control. House Bill 520, recently introduced by Representatives Ty Matthews and David Thomas, is the newest plan to try to answer that question, building on past efforts but taking a more organized and statewide approach to government efficiency.
For many years, Ohio has had a very “local” style of government. The state has 88 counties, more than 1,300 townships, and over 600 public school districts, each with its own leaders, staff, and service responsibilities. Many residents appreciate this closeness because they know who runs their schools, who maintains their roads, and who makes decisions about safety and health. At the same time, this structure can create a lot of overlap; townships for examples, can have the State, the County and the Township have responsibility for clearing and salting roads during the winter. Different offices may be doing similar work side by side, using separate buildings, computer systems, and staff, all paid for by the same taxpayers.
Past governors have seen this problem and tried to make government more efficient. Under Governor John Kasich, the state created innovation and local government funds that offered grants to cities, townships, and counties that were willing to share or combine services. Some communities used this help to merge dispatch centers, share equipment, or study whether joint services would save money. In public health, several local health departments have been combined into larger county health departments, with the goal of using one team and one set of rules to protect more people instead of many small, separate offices. These efforts made progress in some places, but they did not reshape the whole system.
House Bill 520 is designed to push every county in Ohio to look closely at how its local governments work together. The bill would require each county to create a “Blue Ribbon Committee” made up of representatives from counties, cities, villages, townships, and other taxing units such as special districts. This group would review local taxing units, county departments, and public services like water, sewer, health, parks, and cemeteries to find where work is being duplicated and where sharing or consolidation could make sense.
The committees would not just talk; they would have to create a public report that would lay out recommendations for combining certain offices, sharing services across jurisdictions, or otherwise making programs more efficient. These reports would be sent to state lawmakers and posted online so residents can see what is being proposed and how it might affect their communities. Supporters say this structured, county-by-county review could help connect the dots between property tax pressures, service costs, and the complicated web of local governments.
At the heart of this debate is a tension that Ohioans know well. Many people want their services to stay close to home and fear that bigger units of government will be less responsive, even if they might be cheaper to run. Others worry that the current system spreads limited dollars too thin and that some duplication simply is not fair to taxpayers facing higher property tax bills.
House Bill 520 does not force any one-size-fits-all solution, but it does insist that local leaders sit at the same table, look honestly at the map of governments in their county, and ask where collaboration could protect or even improve services while holding down costs. In that way, it continues a long conversation in Ohio about how to honor local voice and local identity, while still making sure government works as well and as efficiently as the people paying for it have every right to expect.
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