In Our View: Study County Consolidation

We’ve all said it: Government needs to be more efficient. There needs to be less bureaucracy. It’s time to think outside the box and find some new ways to provide government services.

So it’s to the credit of Clark County Assessor Peter Van Nortwick and Treasurer Doug Lasher that they are floating an innovative idea: Consolidate 12 of the state’s smallest counties with their larger next-door neighbors, leaving Washington with 27 county governments. They think that merging, say, Skamania County into Clark County, could save $90 million per year statewide.

It’s an interesting notion. Washington’s 39 counties have been static since 1911, when automobiles were scarce and the modern road system was years into the future. In those days, it made sense to have a courthouse nearby, so a farmer could conduct his business and get back home. Nowadays, of course, the courthouse in most counties is less than an hour’s drive, and the internet offers an alternative to, say, going down to the courthouse in person to renew your auto license.

Does Washington really need 39 county sheriffs? Could Clark County’s Public Works Department maintain Skamania County’s roads and manage its solid waste program at a lower cost?

According to the numbers produced by Van Nortwick, a Republican, and Lasher, a Democrat, there might be a lot of savings for taxpayers. They found that property taxes in counties of 10,000 to 30,000 population average $331 per resident. In counties of 300,000 to 1 million people, the per capita property tax is $186. And smaller counties receive 42 percent of their funding from the state and federal government, compared with 27 percent in larger counties.

Of course, there are reasons against consolidation, and they are powerful. The National Association of Counties estimates that only three dozen U.S. counties have been consolidated in the last 200 years. Small counties rely on their local governments and schools to provide community identity. And the thought that all 11 of Skamania County’s elected officials come from that community is at the heart of responsive, representative government. In a consolidated Clark-Skamania county, it’s a safe bet that most of the elected officials will come from the most populous area. (When’s the last time Washington’s governor wasn’t from the greater Seattle area?)

In an email to The Columbian’s Jake Thomas, Skamania County Assessor Gabe Spencer also wonders if Skamania County residents would actually experience any savings. Clark County’s sales tax is greater, he noted, and so is the real estate excise tax. Our average property tax levy rate per $1,000 of assessed value is more, too, though Van Nortwick notes that voter-approved local school levies have a lot to do with that.

Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, says that she will introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would commission a study of Van Nortwick’s and Lasher’s idea. “I’m not saying this is the best course; I’m saying let’s have a look and see,” said Rivers, who went on to say she realizes the notion is “fraught with political peril.”

Rivers’ words may be the biggest understatement of the year thus far. But with a new president who vows to conduct federal business differently, and a state Legislature that will need to solve the vexing problem of funding public education, what better time to step back and evaluate if there are better ways to provide public services at the public’s expense?