Self Government by District: Myth and Reality

The Money Behind the Curtain: Measuring the Financial Condition of Special District Governments in Illinois

“…The consensus among many scholars and practitioners is that special districts are created to allow local governments of general purpose to address public finance concerns and expand their revenue capabilities, sources and size (Bowler & Donovan, 2004;Bunch, 1991;Goodman, 2015;Farmer, 2010;Foster, 1997;Hawkins, 1976;Leigland, 1994;MacManus, 1982;Yu, 2018;Zhang, 2018). Other studies suggest that special districts are created to address limitations imposed by state on local government autonomy (Carr, 2006;McCabe, 2000;Shi, 2017), to avoid transparency and accountability of the political decisionmaking process (Burns, 1994;Frant, 1989;Greer et al, 2018;Lewis, 2017;Roberts, 2000), and to govern jurisdictions with overlapping boundaries (Bordeaux, 2007).…”

Cost Shocks and Their Relationship to the Creation, Consolidation and Dissolution of Us Local Governments

“…The empirical works of Baird & Landon (1972) and Chicoine and Walter (1982, 1985 have found a positive relationship between the number of governments within a county and per capita taxation rates. Other studies such as Hawkins (1976) and Sbragia (1996) assert that special purpose governments provide an institutional mechanism to balance the economic constraints and demands for minimal levels of services. Proponents argue that multi-jurisdictional special purpose governments do allow for achieved economies of scale and in capital intensive services and are a logical response when the jurisdictions of a general purpose government and the functional area do not coincide (Bollens 1986, 119).…”

“…Yet public choice theorists would assert that more fragmentation, not less leads to more efficient government, which should lead to more, not less local governments (Tiebout 1956). Other scholars would argue that single purpose governments would proliferate because general purpose governments would have reached their debt and taxation limits (Hawkins 1976;Bollens 1986;Sbraiga 1996;Foster 1997;Eger 2002). State and local politics and development patterns also all play a role in determining the total number of local governments.…”