The Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration was conceived by the General Assembly; and spent two years developing recommendations to improve efficiency in counties and municipalities statewide.
Lake County Commissioner Daniel Troy is the group's co-chairman. He says some leaders refuse to accept that the current working model of each individual city, providing a full array of services on their own isn't financially sustainable.
DANIEL TROY: "The realities of finite resources are just going to make it very difficult, and I think the worse thing we can do is keep the service model in place and underfund it, because then it just becomes very dysfunctional and core services might not be delivered to the people that really need them."
The commission suggests cities get together as groups to boost their purchasing power, and wants the legislature to overhaul the laws governing joint economic districts to make it easier to understand and utilize development tools. It also suggests prohibiting cities from poaching businesses from their neighbors through tax breaks and incentives.
One of the most controversial proposals is revenue-sharing - where communities would pool a portion of their tax intake to level economic health throughout the region.
The commission doesn't DEMAND change. Cleveland attorney Tim Downing says that wasn't their goal - and that it's up to elected officials to enact any of their suggestions.
TIM DOWNING: "If I'm in the General Assembly and I see the word "incentivize", I say 'Well what program can I come up with to make it more attractive for a city to cooperate and then give them more money potentially from their local government fund or whatever, as a result?' And cities that don't demonstrate that behavior, they just won't get an allocation."
The legislature does not meet again until November.
