Should Mass bring back county government?

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by Lampert

Yes.

A very large state may benefit from and intermediate form of government, especially when there are plenty of unincorporated places. .

Yeah, see, this is where I see it working. In Wisconsin there are swaths of space that are unincorporated. and other just very rural areas. The counties work there. There are also county roads (lettered, as in CTH S, for County Trunk Highway S). Makes sense there. Not in Mass.

[Urban Peasant]

I don't see county government returning in any form to Mass. The ship has sailed. In order to have strong county government, every municipality would have to give up certain rights and responsibilities and some municipalities would have to give up more than others. On paper it sounds good but in reality, it will be impossible to implement. It's as likely as all six New England States giving up their statehoods to merge into one single state called Nova Anglia or New England with Boston as the capital. It's not going to happen.

[thenewtexan]

No. Massachusetts doesn't need MORE government. County government takes care of unincorporated areas in states like Texas, outside of city limits. Every square inch of Massachusetts is part of an incorporated city or town. It wouldn't serve a purpose other than the formality of the criminal justice system.

[mdovell]

Only Berkshire and Franklin County are areas that could warrant one but planning commissions largely took the mantle from counties decades ago

[GeoffD]

Give up socioeconomic segregation? Not going to happen.

[luv4horses]

Here’s a wild idea from an out of state person. What if you abolished counties then let cities describe what others call ETJs or extended town jurisdictions. All land would be associated with a central town. Then set a population range within which smaller towns could in essence merge with each other to create a larger entity. By voting of course.

Then call each city plus etj a county with the same name as the existing city. OR let tiny towns attach to the nearest big town that accepts them. Anyhow, get new and functional county lines. Mistake might be if nobody would tie in to a “poor” town. Would need to reckon with that.

[mdovell]

Let's be honest though they're 351 towns in mass and frankly not all really need to exist. We cannot expect a town of 800 people can have the same resources as 20,000 let alone 100,000.

Some services make more sense regionalized. Rural areas might take pride in trees but house many have foresters and arborists? Evasive species can destroy habitats. Remember the Asian longhorn beetle?

The drug lab issue with Doukan strongly implied to me a regional drug lab could be a good idea