Consolidation Watch: Why not Regional Cooperation?

"Regional Government Districts", a report by the Tennessee Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR), and a Report "Recommendations of the Hampton Roads Regional Structure Project" raises the question of why "Metro government" or "consolidation" is always raised as the "silver bullet" to the future of Shelby County and the region.

The TACIR Report is available at www.tn.gov/tacir and the other report is available at www.fhrinc.org. (Be careful, the TACIR Report is about 43 pages and the Hampton Roads Report is about 22 pages).

Instead of "consolidating" political and financial power into a central wasteful "big government", the Reports provide justification for partnership and cooperation of individual governments and regional organizations instead of a centralized decision making type of single government envisioned by Metro government.

I just received these today, and I will note additional thoughts in the future after reviewing them in more detail. However, this is the type of intergovernmental cooperation promoted by the suburban cities and other organizations opposed to the "rule of the few" type of centralized government promoted by Metro Government.

Recent attempts to disenfranchise the suburban city residents and Shelby County residents is a strong indication of the type of "government" we would have if consolidation should pass. It would be "government by the few, for the few!" with our taxes going to pay for services and benefits that our residents would never see or use.