However, policy problems often don t fit political boundaries and as the state grows, the problems increasingly spill over existing boundaries. As our communities grow in population and service requirements, there is a need for broader service delivery and inter-governmental cooperation that goes beyond current political boundaries. Population numbers, density, and property valuation are general measures of a service delivery area. New technology makes it possible to think more easily past existing boundaries. Data is available today that wasn t several years ago.
Some functions are local, some are state, and some are in between.
What follows is a menu of options that could be adopted by the Commission as a way improving the organization and practice of local and regional service delivery in a citizen focused manner. Encourage changes in existing governmental boundaries . Expand the use of Boundary Agreements Functional Consolidation . Leave boundaries as they are but governments could be encouraged to create functionally oriented citizen-based patterns of service coordination. These mechanisms would be built around shared solutions to common functional problems.