Many municipalities should disincorporate

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald proposes to rationalize local government and provide better services to citizens, writes former county Controller FRANK LUCCHINO

It all began with Wall. Not the proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico. Not the Berlin Wall. Rather it was the tiny borough of Wall that started the discussion of Voluntary Municipal Disincorporation in 1993.

Some clear-thinking borough officials came to visit me in the Allegheny County Courthouse back then while I was serving as county controller. They were seeking help with a myriad of issues their borough faced due to a continuing loss of population and shrinking tax base. Issues included financial stability, operations and public safety.

In 1920, Wall had a population of 2,426. It has since lost population every decade, down to 580 in 2010. Other nearby municipalities spurned Wall’s merger inquiries. There was no reason for hope.

The Pennsylvania Constitution gives the Legislature the power to enact a law to permit municipalities to go out of business (disincorporate). But since 1968, when the Pennsylvania Constitution was adopted, the Legislature has not passed an enabling law.

Wall was stuck. It would have to limp along as best it could, which is what the good folks living in Wall have done. A lot of us worked hard in the 1990s to get the Legislature to pass enabling legislation, but to no avail.

A little history might help. In the early 1800s, Allegheny County had only nine municipalities. Since then, those nine have been divided and subdivided so that they now number 130 boroughs, townships and cities. This means our county has more local governments than any other county in all 50 states, except for Cook County, Illinois. How did that happen?

For one explanation, look to the boroughs lining our three rivers. Many were formed from a “mother” township at the urging and in some cases direction of the industrial enterprises that could dominate a newly formed borough. In other cases, then-existing state law made it very easy for municipalities, as their populations grew, to form and secede unilaterally from host townships.

We currently live in a county in which 57 municipalities have a population of fewer than 5,000. One odd effect is that none of those 57 is required to provide curbside recycling. They are exempt under state law while citizens in the other 73 Allegheny County municipalities are required to recycle.

Then there are the 12 municipalities with fewer than 1,000 residents. They often cannot get enough citizens to run for local office. Sometimes they cannot get bids on public works projects or provide police protection. The abilityto deliver services derives from theability to generate revenue.

To his credit, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has picked up on this good-government issue. Legislation he proposed last month and is working hard to pass would provide residents and elected officials of any municipality with a totally voluntary option to disincorporate. Neither the county nor the state could initiate the process. Services would be assumed by the county, which would receive a municipal services fee in lieu of local taxes.

Among its benefits, this legislation would permit municipalities to utilize this tool in advance of losing control over their finances by being designated a distressed community under Act 47. Disincorporation is available to local communities in 38 other states, so it is hardly a revolutionary idea. In fact, it empowers the residents of municipalities by giving them an option that often enables them to receive better government services.