Report shows Ohio in top 10 for most units of local government

A new report based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2012 Census of Governments) places Ohio among the nation's top states for units of local government.

Jayette Bolinski reports on watchdog.org that Illinois maintains the top state in terms of local government divisions.

The "Land of Lincoln" has almost 7,000 taxpayer-funded units of local government, according to the report – available at http://watchdog.org/55274/il-illinois-maintains-no-1-spot-for-most-unit…

"That includes municipalities, townships, library districts, school districts, park districts, water and sanitary districts, mosquito-abatement districts, airport and transit authorities, hospital boards, tax-increment-financing districts — all of which provide services for Illinois taxpayers," Bolinski said.

These "services" also are costly. There are concerns of duplicated services and a lack of transparency.

However, “They’re good if you want to be employed as a politician,” said Brian Costin, director of government reform for the Illinois Policy Institute.

“You could go to a local government meeting every day of the week and still not be able to make all the meetings,” he said. “I think that’s something where citizens get discouraged. They say, ‘I can’t keep up on everything that’s going on, so I’m just not going to participate.’”

In terms of political leanings, in the 2008 presidential election five of the states with the most units of local government voted for Obama (Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California and New York), and five voted for McCain (Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Missouri).

According to the watchdog.org report, the top states in terms of local government include:

1. Illinois – 6,968 units of local government.

2. Pennsylvania – 4,905.

3. Texas – 4,856.

4. California – 4,350.

5. Kansas – 3,806.

6. Missouri – 3,752.

7. Ohio – 3,702.

8. Minnesota – 3,633.

9. New York – 3,454.

10. Wisconsin – 3,123.