Christie proposes municipal sharing

We here at CityRegionNationWorld don't often see eye-to-eye with Republicans on matters of urban and regional planning. But here's a sensible idea from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: sharing the cost of services across municipal boundaries.

Camden County alone has 37 municipalities. Map: Wikipedia

Like several other northeastern states, New Jersey is a "home rule" state, with the landscape sliced up into numerous boroughs, townships and cities (566 to be exact). With rare exception, each municipality manages its own fire department, police force, zoning laws, property tax rates and other provisions. This is incredibly inefficient, resulting in duplication of services that would be less costly at scale, poor land use planning (every town wants its own industrial park!), and high property taxes to pay for it all. But towns are rarely able to get over their own pride and provincialism to actually do something about this.

Regional planning and service provision can solve these inefficiencies, and many local governments have moved in this direction, to varying extents. Major cities like Miami, Indianapolis and Nashville have merged their city and county governments. Portland, Oregon has a regional government that handles big-picture land use, transportation and waste management issues. Pennsylvania and New Jersey both took an important first step in the early 2000's by providing funds for multi-municipal comprehensive plans.

Christie's plan doesn't specifically mention land use planning and zoning. And, of course, Christie emphasizes the potential to reduce taxes, and peppers in his usual ire toward school districts. But sharing the cost of services across municipal boundaries is a no-brainer, and should be implemented with the support of both political parties.