- Ohio has over 3,600 local government jurisdictions including counties, municipalities, townships, and over 4,000 special districts, ranking it 7th nationally in number of local governments. The high number of fragmented local governments impacts sustainable growth and economic competitiveness. - The monthly payroll expenditures for local government in Ohio are over $1.8 billion, which is around 2 times the national average and 29% above comparable peer states. This high cost of local government is a legacy of Ohio's 19th century local government structure. - Successful efforts to increase collaboration and efficiency between local governments often require a leader or "steward" and are often prompted by economic changes, but comparing efficiency across the many different types of local

1. Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission
for the
Education, Public Institutions,
Miscellaneous and Local
Government Committee
July 11,2013
Alison D. Goebel
Associate Director
Greater Ohio Policy Center
agoebel@greaterohio.org
Lavea Brachman
Executive Director
Greater Ohio Policy Center
lbrachman@greaterohio.org
Overview of Local Government in Ohio

2. Greater Ohio Policy Center:
“Think” and “Do” tank
An outcome-oriented statewide non-profit
organization that develops and implements
policies and practices to:
• revitalize Ohio’s urban cores and
metropolitan regions
• achieve sustainable land reuse and
economic growth

3. Sustainable Growth and Local Government
Ohio’s current local government structure impacts
sustainable growth:
• Communities and taxpayers face the legacy costs of a
19th century structure in a 21st century economy
• Ohio’s population growth is stagnating
• 45th in population growth, but 8th in land consumption
• Fragmented and duplicative local governments prevent
effective economic competition on world market

4. State of Local Government in Ohio
How much does Ohio’s local
government cost?
How does Ohio compare nationally?

5. Cost of Ohio’s Local Government
• 20th highest local tax burden in U.S.
(2010)
• 34th highest for state taxes, as a % of
income (2012)
• 45th in population growth, but 8th in
land consumption

6. Cost of Ohio’s Local Government
• 29% above peer state average (IN, MI, PA,
KY, IL) in monthly local government payroll
• ~2x national average for monthly local
government payroll

7. Monthly payroll expenditures for local
government in Ohio cost $1.8 billion in 2011
Monthly employment expenditures for local government are
almost 3 times that of state government.
$483,289,081 $597,895,507 $653,416,073
$2,054,318,446 $1,692,070,025 $1,817,460,033
$0
$500,000,000
$1,000,000,000
$1,500,000,000
$2,000,000,000
$2,500,000,000
$3,000,000,000
2003 2007 2011
state gov't payroll local gov't payroll

8. Greater Ohio Policy Center
monthly payroll costs of key components of local gov’t, March 2011
Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, Census of Governments; Government Organization, 2011
$0
$20,000,000
$40,000,000
$60,000,000
$80,000,000
$100,000,000
$120,000,000
$140,000,000
$160,000,000
fire
protection
total
corrections local
libraries
judicial and
legal
police
protection
total
health

9. Ohio is MIDDLE of the pack in per capita costs of local
government payroll in the midwest and peer states
state
2011 per capita cost
of local government
Indiana $130.71
Michigan $137.22
Pennsylvania $139.79
Wisconsin $153.49
Minnesota $156.19
Ohio $157.49
Illinois $176.30
New York $251.60
US Total $160.58

10. State of Local Government in Ohio
How much local government does Ohio have?
How does Ohio’s local government system
compare nationally?

11. Ohio has over 3,600
local government jurisdictions
Source: : U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 Census of Governments, Organization Component Preliminary Estimates2012
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
counties (88) municipalities
(940)
townships
(1,308)
traditional
school districts
(614)
types and number of local governments

12. and over 4,000 special district governments
Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, Census of Governments; Government Organization, 2012, research by Randy Cole
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
metro.
housing
auth. (75)
park
districts
(90)
airports
(97)
joint fire or
ambulance
district
(145)
municipal
& county
courts
(165)
library
districts
(251)
senior
centers
(450)
examples of special district governments

13. Ohio ranks 7th nationally in raw numbers
of local governments per state
rank state # of local gov'ts
1Illinois 6,968
2Pennsylvania 4,905
3Texas 4,856
4California 4,350
5Kansas 3,806
6Missouri 3,752
7Ohio 3,702
8Minnesota 3,633
9New York 3,454
10Wisconsin 3,123
Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, US Census of Governments, 2012

14. and 8th nationally in local governments per square mile
Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, US Census of Governments, 2012
rank state
Size of state in
square mile
# of local
govts govts/sq mi
1 New Jersey 8,214 1,344 0.164
2 Delaware 2,396 338 0.141
3 Illinois 57,914 6,968 0.120
4 Connecticut 5,543 644 0.116
5 Rhode Island 1,231 134 0.109
6 Pennsylvania 46,055 4,905 0.107
7 Massachusetts 9,240 852 0.092
8 Ohio 44,825 3,702 0.083
9 Vermont 9,614 728 0.076
10 Indiana 36,418 2,694 0.074

15. Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, US Census of Governments, 2012
In 2012, we had 42.1 local governments per county
compared to the national average of 29.4.

16. In Ohio, there are 410 municipalities
with 1,000 or fewer residents
* 2012 estimates will be available in fall 2013
Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, Census of Governments; Government Organization, 2007
252
158 165
110
61 57 32 57 13 12
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
number of municipalities by 2005 population*

17. 224 townships with 1,000 or fewer residents
and 30 with more than 20,000 residents
Source: Greater Ohio Policy Center, Census of Governments; Government Organization, 2002
48
176
511
290
176
71 20 9 6 5
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
number of townships by 2006 population

18. Responsibilities and powers of
local governments vary
• Municipalities have home rule powers
• Townships are a “creature of statute” but
can have limited home rule powers
• Counties are governed by general rules.
Charter counties have home rule powers

19. Observations on local government efforts to
collaborate and become more efficient
State of Local Government in Ohio

20. Successful collaborations and efforts to
become more efficient often require a leader
or steward.
Finding #1 from GOPC white papers

21. Stewards often have the highest levels of capacity and
resources to lead collaboration efforts. Examples
include:
• Metropolitan Planning Organizations
• Education Service Centers
• County Engineers
• County Executive or County Commissioners
• Major cities
Stewarding collaboration and efficiency efforts

22. Collaboration and efficiency efforts are often
prompted by economic changes
Local governments have begun to “right-size”
equipment and staff so resources are maximally
utilized
Finding #2 from GOPC white papers

23. Comparing local governments and measuring
efficiency can be difficult
• Ohio has no set standard reporting instrument for
a detailed breakdown of local government
expenditures
• Local governments are assessing themselves and
soliciting third party inventories to better
understand their efficiency opportunities
Finding #3 from GOPC white papers

24. 0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1952 1962 1972 1982 1992 1997 2002
Numbers and Types of Local Government in Ohio
County
Municipal
Townships
School Districts
Special Districts
Consolidations and mergers are
not new for Ohio

25. Results of intergovermental collaboration
• economies of scale
• improved local government accountability
• equalization of service quantity and quality
• coordinated economic competitiveness
• ability to retain local community character and
flavor

26. Visit our website:
http://greaterohio.org/
Greater Ohio blog:
http://greaterohio.org/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @GreaterOhio
Like Greater Ohio Policy Center on
Facebook
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