To manufacture an issue that no one is talking about.

>Of the country’s more than 3,000 counties, only about 40 have merged with their core cities since 1895. About a third of those are in Alaska and Georgia.

A 0.44% chance over 128 years, almost down there with the odds of dying from Covid, I can see why you brought it up.

It's clear and obvious CT needs to move to county-based governance, for all the reasons the article states. Nice to see this kind of wisdom rising. It'd be nicer, not to mention better for all Connecticut residents, to see it acted upon.

Local governance is best governance.

**Looks at the US South, and it's shitty regional governance that can't solve local problems...like having pottable water.....**

No thanks, we'll keep doing what we're doing. "Big government" actually works when all voting-aged people elect it, rather than exclusively land/home owners.

Can't happen without a method for county taxation which would require an amendment to the state constitution. 169 mayors/first selectmen would no longer be the big fish in little ponds. They'll fight it tooth and nail. 8 superintendents of schools? You think all but the 8 want to lose their jobs? County sheriffs instead of local police chief's?

It may be a great idea. It may not be. But you can be sure of one thing. It'll never happen. Too many people have too much to lose.

It's a regular topic of conversation in my circles. Maybe we're just weird.

Mmm. I like the town system, buuuut, we also need a way for larger cities to involuntarily annex smaller kin or at least areas of smaller kin.

So, like an invasion?

Yup. That’s weird.

> Can't happen without a method for county taxation which would require an amendment to the state constitution.

Why? To pick just one example, East Haven, West Haven, and New Haven could merge into a single city without county-level government.

That's what my group generally discusses.

The bigger issue, though, is you would absolutely never see WeHa agree to merge with Hartford. There's just too much for them to lose.

Our local governance can't solve affordable housing.

Potable water isn't much different, the calculation is still based on a profit motive. In general most areas of CT are too wealthy to lose potable water, nothing to do with governance really.

I personally would LOVE to hear the arguments why people don’t want to merge Hartford and West Hartford. Let’s do it

Every few years city politicians bring this up. They have ruined and drained their tax base and pushed the middle class to the suburbs. They want to expand and spread their mismanagement far and wide. Luckily anyone with a brain can see how this will end up. Our towns routinely share equipment and services as they see fit. This idea will luckily never happen.

I mean, that would be a fun way to play it out.

There's a part of southbury called Russian village......

We dont like change. We say we are progressive but the minute you want to optimize ways of government, the people that have been sucking on the sweet taste of tax payer funded careers will fight it with everything they got.

The county system would save us so much money. Imagine having an organized EMS management system for firefighters, police, health, education and management. Instead towns need to allocate these resources, share them, and when you call 911 for an ambulance, it may be coming from two towns over.

Even property taxes, car taxes, and water districts can be optimized with a county system lol

As long as we have the COGs this won’t happen. Right now municipalities get to have their cake and eat it too. Zero incentive to merge when they can get their services paid for by the state/other larger munis while giving up no authority.

If you’re not familiar with your council of government, look into it. We have regional services, just not regional government.

Yeah, I live in the south currently under county government and it's a shit show. The money in the south end of the county ends up in the north end primarily. The south end is where all the tourists are. The north end is farms. In the south end we don't even have all our residential roads paved, no streetlights (unless a homeowner pays for it), no sidewalks, our services are atrocious and incredibly underfunded. People here complain any time someone brings up incorporation, they don't want "big government". But then in the same breath complain about how we have no drainage and can't get massive flooding issues fixed. I have zero desire to live in a county run area ever again.

Agree it would make sense in the case of some towns, not make sense in others, and be politically infeasible in many cases

We don’t have affordable housing because the state government can’t afford to remediate the shit ton of old industrial buildings littering Bridgeport, New Haven etc, which is (part of) what’s needed to entice actual development and new housing in our cities.

Although the article mentions how Hartford splintered into different municipalities (including West Hartford) in the 1800's, the article mentions the real issue with so many municipalities is in the rural areas of Connecticut, where offices are going vacant because no one is filling low salary positions. . . Which doesn't characterize West Hartford. . .So I guess I would start that arguing from the premise that West Hartford needs to be absorbed because it can't govern itself?

Furthermore, areas that have worked, such as the New Jersey towns mentioned, were of similar size and demographics, and merging was a true merging. I think the extreme argument is that combining Hartford and West Hartford would be akin to gerrymandering, with Hartford's population and priorities overpowering West Hartford's, it would be placing Hartford in charge of West Hartford.

Which, if West Hartford was unable to govern itself, would probably be a reason for West Hartford to be absorbed. But West Hartford and its residents have the resources and the right to prioritize their community. Building Blue Back Square, revitalizing the Prospect Park Plaza area are things West Hartford can handle, and should. Where would these projects rank on a priority list if a part of Hartford? If West Hartford can afford and has the resources to deal with it, why waste Hartford's time and energy on something it doesn't have time for?

When I was buying a house 8 years ago, I could have bought a block in Bridgeport for the average price of a detached home in my area. The problem has not been and will never be "cheap land".

CT really needs to give municipalities an option for independent revenue stream that doesn't rely solely on property tax. Just spitballing but if the state knocks the sales tax back to 6% and redistribute the other .35% back to the towns directly based on gross receipts (services would be where the business is domiciled) that'd relieve the utter pressure in a big way for towns to not give up all the services they provide in house.

The area around every Dunkin' should be considered its own municipality..That will end all the divisive and unnecessary arguments over which town has the most Dunkin's....

A tale as old as time

A song as old as Rhyme

Merging municipalities

West Hartford is rich and white. Hartford is not.

No. It benefits literally no one. Some idiots think combining west Hartford sand Hartford will make Hartford better. It won’t. It never will. In every scenario, you are destroying the “good” for a negligible affect on the bad.

Easy, will split into 4 big towns, dunkinville, cumbiesville, dollar general city, and pizzaburg

It’s not optimizing. As government gets bigger, it gets worse, with few exception. Bring your concerns to any city entity and see how you are treated compared to any small town. Services received are almost always worse.

Absolutely not true.

What is bigger to manage, 169 micro governments that can’t efficiently agree on EMS, school, firefighter, police, public work projects vs 8 counties that can manage resources.

Right now the state forces towns to form their own groups to save money, like the Northwest Hills Council of Governments. Towns cant afford proper planning or employ people to meet the never ending state mandates on all towns, no matter their size. This is the only way some towns can meet state requirements.

We are so fractured and divided as a state that we waste resources (tax payer money) because of wasteful but required town expenditures. It would be far more efficient to have a county system. It would also standardize procedures.

You are looking at it from a overall financial perspective, which is irrelevant to most people. Quality of services is vastly superior in small towns, because those services have to answer directly to a small entity. 169 micro governments don’t need to agree, because they have their own services and can make decisions for themselves.

Wait, are you saying people much rather be financially forced out of owning a home because of higher mill rates to sustain inefficient government but at least you get a lollipop and a smile when you ask to speak to the assessor? Efficiency is needed. Efficiency equals customer satisfaction.

I’m saying it’s quite the opposite. Cities have massive mill rates and high taxes. Generally, the smaller the town the lower the taxes. Towns can adapt to their residents much more efficiently. My rural house cost half the amount of taxes of my urban house. It’s the city government that are larger that are inefficient. And once again, you are ignoring quality of services. If I have an issue, I can speak directly to my town manager. I can call a department and speak to a live person, not a phone tree. Good luck speaking directly to a mayor of a city and getting anything done. If I call police, they show up within 5 minutes. When I was in a city, i had it take as long as 5 hours.

[deleted]

West Hartford is a thriving, nice town and Hartford isn't. Why would residents of West Hartford want to merge into Hartford?

Those towns can already combine services if they choose to. For example the Tyler Regional Animal Care Shelter, which was agreed to by Manchester, south Windsor and east Hartford. I think what’s being forgotten is that where you live is a choice. If you want big town services, move to a big town. Stop forcing every town to be like every other town. Towns with no officers can already purchase services from the state police via the resident trooper program.

[deleted]

I believe we need to carve out space for the car wash metropolis.

CT should be tolling out of state drivers honestly. We pay NY tolls. State should be doing something to make money.

Correct - one of the problems in CT’s cities are that you can’t use the land because abandoned, contaminated buildings are sitting on top of them.

Bridgeport is still cheap.

West Hartford couldn’t exist without Hartford. But by being a separate municipality it is able to reap the benefits of being close to Hartford, without having to worry about anything that happens in Hartford, or pay for any Hartford services.

My comment was meant as a joke, but how could West Hartford not exist without Hartford just as any other town could exist without Hartford?

I just think that the nicer suburban towns depend on their neighboring cities for their prosperity and standard of living. I feel like there should be some mechanism to ensure that they pay their fair share, rather than walling themselves off administratively.

I just don’t know how they depend on Hartford. Employment - sure many work in Hartford, but many don’t. Pay their fair share of what? Many people work in a town or city that they don’t live in. Would this fair share apply to everyone then? That’d get messy quickly.

I think it’s time ct takes a serious look at county system .. it will solve a lot of issues and will save a ton a money .. but for someone reason when you mention it it’s like wooohooo don’t say that word

What’s the difference of having bad elected officals in a county and a city ??? It’s all in the people that are voted in the issue isn’t the county system it’s the people that get elected

I 100% agree with you .. but you mention county system and people freak out I bet a good chunck of them Never even thought about how it would work and save money

yeah that or they're among the too-large town admin and employee population that benefits from the bloated and corrupt system