COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio could wind up with fewer than its current 88 counties under a money-saving idea from the state auditor.
Auditor Dave Yost this week told an Ohio Senate panel that making it easier for counties to merge would cut costs through the consolidation of offices and services.
The Columbus Dispatch reports Yost told reporters after his testimony that the state has had 88 counties for a long time but there’s nothing “magic” about the number. He says state budget cuts might lead neighboring counties to decide it would make financial sense to combine and have one prosecutor and one sheriff.
His plan would give voters greater rights to start petition drives toward merging two or more counties. It also would give local officials more power to merge townships.
Comments
I am laughing so hard.... Is that guy above me serious???
This has got to be the funniest 'Conspiracy of the Republicans' I have seen in a long time.
Lolz wow. I'm in tears i'm laughing so hard. How does anyone take Carlstaatz seriously. He can't be serious....funniest anti GOP statement I have ever heard...It would put more money in taxpayers pocket if anything because it would cut county administrative expenses....Auditor Yost is not coming at this in a political sense but an Accounting sense....The Auditors office is to look and find ways the state can save money
I agree could_it_be. I dont think consolidation would work for a county such as mahoning, and I doubt that Yost would be advocating that. However there are a good amout sparsely populated counties in the state that could benefit from it.
It would seem a lot easier to simply allow the sheriff and prosecutors to cover 2+ counties.
I'm sure they're mainly referring to low-population counties merging and not something like Mahoning and Trumbull.
The area of Mahoning County within the Western Reserve used to be a part of Trumbull County, while the southern townships were a part of Columbiana County. I'd be alright going back to that, just so as long as the consolidation means Trumbull County engineers take over Mahoning County's road maintenance throughout the annexed communities.