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“State lawmakers finally must recognize that fragmented local governance in Pennsylvania no longer makes sense in the modern era.”

This editorial, addressing one aspect of the fractured system of Pennsylvania’s government, appeared in the Scranton Times-Tribune on January 17, 2012.

“Given Dunmore’s budget problems over the last several years, borough taxpayers were relieved when the government managed to hold the line on taxes this year.

But that flat line is supported somewhat by taxpayers in neighboring Scranton. The city’s Fire Department often has been called upon over the years to battle fires in Dunmore, where the small, budget-constrained department needs outside help with major fires.

That expectation continues even though the Scranton department itself has been depleted by layoffs and closed firehouses – the result of budgetary decisions driven in part by unreasonable arbitration awards.

Scranton Fire Chief Tom Davis said last week that the borough-city mutual aid pact for fire-fighting will continue, but that the city department’s response times to Dunmore likely will be somewhat longer.

The situation points to a way in which the state government can do something substantial to help struggling municipal governments statewide.

Much of municipal governance in Pennsylvania is needlessly expensive because of duplication of services and administration. The commonwealth has more units of local government than any state other than Illinois – more than 5,000.

Even when local governments wish to consolidate services, they sometimes can’t because of technical obstacles in state law.

Scranton and Dunmore, which share a long common border, sporadically have discussed combining firefighting services to improve service and spread costs across both communities. There is no time like the present given persistent budget problems affecting both governments.

State lawmakers finally must recognize that fragmented local governance in Pennsylvania no longer makes sense in the modern era. Many local government services would be far less expensive to administer at the county level because doing so would eliminate redundancy, just as a new wage-tax collection protocol this year will reduce the number of tax collectors statewide from more than 500 to just 69.

The Legislature should launch a project to rework the municipal classification system in the state to mandate, rather than recommend, consolidated services. And it should make a special effort to deal with firefighting, since the budget problems facing most municipal departments are accompanied by financial and staffing challenges affecting volunteer departments.

(SOURCE: The Scranton Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA)