City-county Consolidation and Local Government Expenditures

As more local governments consider consolidation of government functions, officials are concerned about the expected impact on expenditures. Using a treatment group of consolidated city-counties and a control group of city-counties that considered but rejected consolidation through the referendum process, the authors examine differences in per capita local government expenditures. The statistical analysis shows that per capita expenditures in consolidated communities are not statistically different from those that considered and rejected consolidation. These results suggest that consolidation is not likely to decrease expenditures in the typical consolidated local government.