City-County merger talk--is it just talk? (St. Louis, Denver: crime rates, calculated, taxation)

[silibran]

I saw reference to a merger in an online P-D article, and today I read an article at the St. Louis Beacon site.

http://tinyurl.com/myxpztp City/county reunification talk could complicate county executive race

Are any of you talking about it? Or is this wishful thinking from local thinkers? I know Dooley favors some merging, but I wasn't aware that a full on merge was even imaginable. The voters last voted, as best my memory serves, back in the 1960s. Neither city nor county wished to merge then, I believe.

Of course a merger would be advantageous in many ways, but there hasn't been the political will to do this. The city is unsustainable in the long term though. So something, sometime will have to be done. But I wasn't sure if anything would be done in my lifetime. What do you think?

[glamatomic]

I've heard 'talk' about it ever since I moved to St. Louis the first time, 8 years ago. In my opinion, it should happen, but I don't believe that it will happen anytime soon. Because a lot of the communities in the county (with the exception of some of the smaller, poorer cities) wouldn't see any advantage to a merger, I'm doubtful that the'd be in favor of it, even though it would benefit the city of St. Louis.

[Dawn10am]

I think it's a great idea. However, there are two options here that people often get confused about:

(1) The City and County completely merge to form one giant city (unlikely)

(2) The City re-enters the County as the 91st municipality with some merging of government functions (more likely)

Honestly I don't see what the big deal is. Every other city in the country is part of its metropolitan county (except Baltimore), so why can't St. Louis be too? What would really be great is if they could merge the police departments and only report total crime in the combined city/county. We'd never be on those heinous "most dangerous" lists again.

[NewStLouisan]

What would really be great is if they could merge the police departments and only report total crime in the combined city/county.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's done for cities that are part of a larger county, like for instance Chicago (Cook county) or San Diego (San Diego county). It's only done for cities that are also counties themselves (like Denver). So unless STL city and county merge into one large "giant city", the crime stats will always be separate.

[Dawn10am]

Originally Posted by NewStLouisan

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's done for cities that are part of a larger county, like for instance Chicago (Cook county) or San Diego (San Diego county). It's only done for cities that are also counties themselves (like Denver). So unless STL city and county merge into one large "giant city", the crime stats will always be separate.

That's correct, but one of the purposes of the city-county merger is also to merge governments, wherein each municipality retains some of its responsibilities but they're all governed by a larger, city-county government. This is similar to Indianapolis' Unigov. (Don't quote me on this, though--it's just what I'm hearing from the OneSTL people). If that's the case, then they could definitely merge the police departments.

[Old Trafford]

Originally Posted by Dawn10am

That's correct, but one of the purposes of the city-county merger is also to merge governments, wherein each municipality retains some of its responsibilities but they're all governed by a larger, city-county government. This is similar to Indianapolis' Unigov. (Don't quote me on this, though--it's just what I'm hearing from the OneSTL people). If that's the case, then they could definitely merge the police departments.

Merger would mean that City Departments like Sheriff and a lot of the courts would go to the County - and revenue from the city would go to the County to support them - It would save some money

Its still a few years away but it probably will happen in some form

County police and City police are already sharing resources, helicopters, crime labs, expect more of that in the future

[silibran]

It should have happened years and years ago.

[STLviaMSP]

The lack of regional cooperation has done an incalculable amount of damage to metro STL. Planning, transit, public policy, land use, education, taxation, boundaries - it's such a convoluted mess on so many levels, and it so clearly makes the region look stupid. Anyone that thinks the merger, or reentry, etc, are a bad idea, is basically committed to putting a noose around the economic future of the region. We have 90 something municipalities in STL county alone, which is capital-R Reeetarded. So many of them were formed for the sheer purpose of keeping black people out, and look how that worked out. Ghettos! Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd hire people to run the region with the strict requirement that nobody of local origin could be in any major decisionmaking roles. The locals have proven themselves remarkably bad at managing their own affairs or playing nicely together. That is a fact, not a diss. I'd like to think the merger/reentry can happen, but I also know that we're talking about children / parking lot developers / people whose politics are frozen in 1950s amber. So good luck with that!

[marigolds6]

Originally Posted by NewStLouisan

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's done for cities that are part of a larger county, like for instance Chicago (Cook county) or San Diego (San Diego county). It's only done for cities that are also counties themselves (like Denver). So unless STL city and county merge into one large "giant city", the crime stats will always be separate.

Crime stats are listed separately, but crime rates are calculated using the larger county only (and so all the crime stats have to be merged as well). More than a few cities just merger their stats with the larger county because they get merge for rate calculation anyway. This is primarily done to make it easier to get JAG grants (which are based on total crime, not rates).

[Dawn10am]

Originally Posted by STLviaMSP

Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd hire people to run the region with the strict requirement that nobody of local origin could be in any major decisionmaking roles. The locals have proven themselves remarkably bad at managing their own affairs or playing nicely together. That is a fact, not a diss.

Hahaha I love this and totally agree. I also think a lot of your average Joe everyday St. Louisans need to get out of St. Louis more often.