Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Diluting their energies?

Via America's Hometown, this interesting Inquirer opinion piece on the excessive fragmentation of government in Pennsylvania. There are 2600 local governmental units in the state, of which 60% serve fewer than 2500 citizens.
It's not that local officials don't work hard, care about their communities, or keep government close to the people. They do. And it's not about a willingness to serve. But in too many instances, these small local governments operate independently of one another, have few resources at their disposal, and do little planning either inside or outside their municipalities. They are 18th-century organizations operating in a 21st-century economy.
Some interesting notions there, worth a visit. (And wacky too -- I think that my tiny Philadelphia voting precinct -- a subunit of a Ward, out of some 66 wards in the city -- is about half that size.)

1 Comments:

Blogger rachaelmh18 said...

My mother & father live about an hour away, but it's like they are in another world. the "mayor" has no accountability. he openly does favors for friends. to even check the town meeting minutes, one must visit his ofc & sign a log to read the minutes in smaller, neighboring townships already have most of their info online.

although... you followed the 'greenwood' race i'm sure. i shadowed ginny schrader in her bid against fitzpatrick. wrote about it for some area & online pubs. schrader, by all accounts, should have won- were you just checking the two contestants online. so i'm not certain how much of this digitized government turnover will occur, ultimately. and i'm not sure how valuable it will wind up being. imho, though, that would be the quickest way to make government more accessible to the masses and to bring it into the new millenia.

11:19 AM  

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