Plan would merge 16 counties into 8

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AUGUSTA – Rep. Barbara Merrill is proposing that Maine’s 16 counties be merged into eight as a first step toward easing Maine’s property tax burden.

Merrill, D-Appleton, who was elected Nov. 2 to a first term in the state House of Representatives, says the time is ripe to restructure county government around the state with an eye toward finding savings and efficiencies.

In December, she pitched her plan to a legislative panel working to craft a property tax reform bill.

Merrill hopes her plan will become an amendment to the final package.

Though the county portion of the local property tax bill is usually the smallest – often a distant third to education and municipal government – it is a logical starting point for the committee, she said.

“Property tax reform must start with the reform of county government,” Merrill told the committee Dec. 14, “because it is the fastest-growing service which is dependent on property taxes.”

In the past 10 years, property taxes in Maine “have risen 53 percent, twice the rate of inflation,” Merrill said.

Municipal governments have held the line with increases at close to the rate of inflation.

But the cost of operating the state’s 16 county governments “has gone up three times faster than inflation” during the same period, she told the committee.

And the costs are attributable to the structure of county government, she said, “and can only be fixed by us.”

One big part of the fix she is proposing is to merge Maine’s 16 counties into eight, based on geography, population and valuation.

The state’s most populous counties have the lowest per-person county government cost, Merrill said.

Subtracting the cost of their county jails, Cumberland County residents pay $57.58 for county services on an annual, per-person basis; Penobscot County residents pay $48.31; and Kennebec County residents pay $47.63.

At the other end of the scale, residents of Piscataquis County pay (after subtracting jail costs) $149.48; Washington County residents pay $110.52; Waldo County residents pay $101.97; Hancock County residents pay $92.95; and Knox County residents pay $89.10.

Merrill argues that, based on population or property valuation, “no one starting new in the 21st century would align our counties in their current configurations.”

Cumberland County, with a population of 270,930, has a valuation of $26.4 billion; Waldo County, with a population of 38,248, has a valuation of $2.9 billion.

Merrill proposes combining Waldo, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, which would have a total valuation of $14.6 billion, and a combined population of 149,838, still significantly less than Cumberland.

She also would combine Washington and Hancock counties, which would have $9.3 billion in valuation and a population of 87,271.

Penobscot and Piscataquis counties also would be joined together, totaling $8.1 billion in valuation, with a population of 164,376.

Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties would be joined, while Aroostook, Cumberland and York would remain free-standing.

“Our geography does not let us come close to equalizing [costs], but we can create counties which have the population, valuation and income to support county services and provide them in an efficient fashion,” Merrill said.

Even without legislative leadership, some county cooperation has begun.

Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties decided last year to build a jail together, and Waldo and Knox counties are discussing possible joint solutions to their jail crowding problems.

Beyond fiscal efficiencies to regional jails, Merrill said, there are other costs to maintaining small, local lockups. From 1998 to 2002, there were 13 suicides in county jails, while there were just four suicides in state prisons, she said.

Merrill advocates creating three jails for those serving less than a year, and providing small lockups near courts for those recently arrested. And she believes the state should pay for county jails.

Currently, the cost of jails and providing countywide law enforcement makes up the lion’s share of county budgets.

Jails alone make up 30 percent to 50 percent of county budgets around the state, said Bob Howe, executive director of the Maine County Commissioners Association. Other county government functions include registry of deeds, probate court and emergency management agencies. And counties support a portion of district attorneys offices.

Howe said three counties own and operate airports, two or three have economic development offices, and several operate countywide public safety dispatch centers.

Howe is blunt about Merrill’s plan.

“I don’t think it’s politically feasible,” he said recently. The effort will end up being “a major distraction, politically,” Howe added, and could waste valuable legislative time.

At the same time, he conceded that if he could wave a wand over Maine to redistrict the state’s counties, some changes would be in order. And he thinks that technology may provide a path for some consolidation, such as a Web-based registry of deeds that could reduce the need for office space and staff.

But Howe believes Merrill’s plan should be closely scrutinized. Consolidation is assumed to provide cost savings, but “somebody ought to do a cost-benefit analysis” to see if merging counties actually would achieve savings.

Consolidating Maine’s 491 municipalities might make more sense, he said.

Though newly elected, Merrill knows her way around the State House, having been a lobbyist for a mental health advocacy group. And though the political odds may be against her, she believes they are not insurmountable.

“I do not think I am tilting at windmills,” she said in an interview. “Good ideas often wait for years until the moment of opportunity. The public outcry for property tax reform has created such a moment and we should all be determined to use it not just to shift how we pay for government, but to actually save taxpayers’ money.”

Legislative studies in 1989 and 1997 suggested sweeping changes to county government, Merrill notes, but those recommendations were largely ignored.

One successful county merger occurred at the recommendation of then-state Sen. Joe Brennan in the late 1970s, she said, when county prosecutors were given multicounty districts, cutting the number of prosecutors from 16 to eight.

The studies urged moving county government to a fee-for-service system; end or cut back its reliance on property taxes; and have the state take over the operations of jails, Merrill said.

“The blame for this problem lies squarely with the Legislature of the last 30 years,” Merrill told the committee.