Time’s right for local reform

The red ink facing our local governments across the 16 counties of Northeast Ohio is staggering:

U The city of Warren faces another million-dollar-plus deficit this year despite laying off 55 employees in 2008.

U The township of Boardman faced a $3.4 million deficit in 2008 and despite approval of a 2.2-mill levy, faces future funding problems.

ULakeview schools, one of the top academic districts in the state, continues to face budget cuts as voters reject additional levy funding.

UYoungstown schools have cut about 500 positions to deal with multi-million-dollar deficits.

UThe village of Lordstown faces a huge drop in revenues from Lordstown General Motors layoffs.

Taken together these and dozens of other tales of fiscal woe across the region add up to a governmental crisis that will undoubtedly result in slower snow removal, larger potholes and fewer recreation programs. But instead of a sense of impending doom, we see important reasons to believe that our region will use this as an opportunity to create more efficient, effective government and emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.

Our optimism is based on the numerous efforts under way to increase the efficiency of local government in the region. Whether it’s discussions about shared gasoline purchasing among some communities in Mahoning County, a countywide salt purchasing endeavor proposed by the Trumbull County engineer, a Metropolitan police operation being discussed in Trumbull County or sharing IT services in Mahoning, positive changes are happening.

It is easy to be cynical about local government, but it isn’t always fair. Increasingly, government officials in Northeast Ohio are willing to try something new.

For example, the government leaders of the city of Youngstown and its 11 neighboring communities have been meeting for nearly a year to explore how they can work together in areas like purchasing, fire districts and IT services, while the same dialogue is going on by the newly formed Trumbull County Council of Governments.

Public demand

The public is ready for more government change. A recent opinion survey sponsored by the Fund for Our Economic Future found that 82 percent of residents favor more government collaboration and 67 percent even support government consolidation. This strong support for change may reflect the public’s dismay at the results of the Cost of Government Research issued last year, which found our local governments consume more than 10 percent of our region’s economic output and local government spending is growing at more than twice the rate of inflation. The research also found that other regions that are experiencing greater economic growth have done a better job of controlling their governmental costs.

Improving the efficiency of individual governments and school districts is important, but there is only so much that can be squeezed from each city hall or school house.

All of us must increase our public support for government collaboration and efficiency. To help push such efforts forward, this spring the Fund for Our Economic Future will launch a program that will award $300,000 in grants to help pay for three new government collaboration initiatives. And the public will ultimately decide which initiatives deserve the grant dollars. We hope you will encourage your local government officials to apply for this grant program.

The Fund, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and other partners in Advance Northeast Ohio are committed to working together to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local government. We believe that effective local government will result in more economic growth for our communities and our region. Governments and school districts that are in constant fiscal crisis do not govern well. We all need to support those elected officials committed to finding new ways to improve our governments and strengthen our economy.

X Tom Humphries is president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, and Brad Whitehead is president of the Fund For Our Economic Future, Cleveland.