A better question is: what are we consolidating? The answer to that is unclear in a 2004 poll of Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project members referenced in testimony before last week’s hearing of the Pennsylvania House Urban Affairs Committee. The terms municipal consolidation and regionalism can have multiple meanings; the most important implication of this fact is that CITY-COUNTY CONSOLIDATION IS NOT OUR ONLY OPTION.

Regionalism is the governance of a large geographical area. There are several different types of regionalism, such as fiscal (e.g. tax-base sharing), functional (e.g. shared services) or structural (e.g. consolidation). All of these types of regionalism can have benefits for the geographic area(s) they serve, depending on the details of the specific arrangement…