Back when he was campaigning hard for streamlining local government, Gov. Daniels made a point of talking about how many units and officials we have:
For its size and population, Indiana has far too much local government. Indiana has some 2,700 local units of government authorized to levy property taxes. Governing these units are more than 10,700 elected officials, 1,100 of whom assess property. Few other states have as much local government.”
Raw numbers don't tell quite the whole story, though. What about a per capita comparison, how many local governments we have to serve how many people:
The US average is 3,451 people per local government. Illinois' ratio is 1,835, or almost twice as many local government agencies per person as the rest of the country.
However, neighbors like Iowa (1,559), Missouri (1,609) and Wisconsin (1,823) have even fewer people per local government agencies as Illinois, making their per capita problem worse. Indiana, at 2,007, has just a bit more.
Then again, some of the other big states do much better than Illinois on a per capita basis. California has 8,576 people per local government, New York has 5,694, Texas has 5,201, Florida has 11,584, Michigan has 3,416, and Ohio has 3,116.
Even that doesn't give you all you need to know. How much local government should we have? A lot depends on whether you think efficiency is the most important factor or accountability is. Overpopulating local government may cost more and be a little clunkier, but it gives people more representation. The bigger and more impenetrable the state and federal governments are, the more people feel the need to connect with local officials.
