Steps to Take Before Merging

The Citizen Advisory Committee’s report recommending the merger of Pittsburgh’s and Allegheny County’s governments has reignited debate over an old and recurring issue. Their basic rationale is that City and County governments must become more cost efficient if they wish to stem the decades’ old population slide and energize the anemic pace of economic growth. One wonders whether or not talk of merging governments would be on anyone’s agenda if the City were enjoying strong growth, population gains, and a financially sound government. In such circumstances, it is highly likely the County’s economic growth would be far more robust and population loss would be minimal or non-existent. Moreover, the County’s government would probably not be using one time funding sources to balance its books and future budgets would not have large deficits looming as currently foreseen by the Controller. Continue