Feb 07
2011
Survey shows US counties and cities partnering for service delivery
A recent NACo survey shows that local governments are still feeling the effects of the US national recession.
Among the key findings of the report are that:
- Declining revenues from the state are the number one contributor to lower revenue for counties (46 percent);
- Counties used rainy-day funds (40%), made administrative changes and adjusted personnel to help keep their budgets balanced; and
- More than half of the counties surveyed (53%) have fewer county staff than they did in 2010. 71% of counties with fewer employees lost up to 5 percent of their workforce.
Counties consolidating activities
The study found that some counties are consolidating activities, here are few from the report:
- 29% have consolidated community and economic development activities
- 23% have consolidated law enforcement and/or fire protection
- 15% have consolidated their information technology
- 26 % have consolidated their dispatch services or animal control
Cities contracting with counties for service delivery
The report shows that some counties are contracting with cities for cost and budget efficiencies:
- 25% for law enforcement
- 17% for other such as animal control, code enforcement, dispatch and election processes
Size of county makes a difference:
- 83% of the largest counties are contracting with other local governments for law enforcement
- 22% of the midsize counties
- 18% of the smallest are doing the same
About the survey and report
In early February 2011, the National Association of Counties conducted an economic status survey. The survey was conducted by National Research, LLC and responses were received from 500 county governments in 44 states. This survey is a follow up to five previous economic status surveys that have tracked how counties are fairing during the current economic slowdown.
Click here to download the full report.
To see additional, source for some of this information, click here.
