Buffalo Area Looks at Regional Government Alternatives

The top executive of the county encompassing Buffalo, N.Y., has called for abolishing both the city and county governments and merging services and resources under a new regional government. A streamlined metropolitan government would reduce the region's tax burdens, said Erie County Executive Joel Giambra. And that, he says, would attract business investments to an area suffering from economic stagnation. Well, maybe.

Buffalo's story is not unlike those of Cleveland and other onetime industrial towns falling on economic hard times. Regionalism has become a hot topic in Cleveland, as well. A poll re leased last week shows that Northeast Ohio residents like the idea of shifting responsibility from local government to a regional government for tourism, planning economic growth and luring new businesses, but want to keep land-use issues with local governments.

The proposed Buffalo merger would make the new local government the 11th largest in the nation. By itself, Buffalo is the 59th largest city. If Cleveland, which ranks 33rd, merged with Cuyahoga County, it would rank sixth.

Here for more.