Merger Mayor: Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson

“Metropolitanism is where this country is,” says Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson. When it comes to attracting and adding new jobs, Abramson says, cities, counties and state governments are 19th century organizations trying to solve 21st-century problems.

Abramson spent four days in Sarasota this week, a guest of the Sarasota-based Argus Foundation. He visited with business owners and executives and municipal and county elected officials from Sarasota to North Port and spoke about how Jefferson County and Louisville, Ky. — the city for which he served as its elected mayor 15 years — consolidated into one entity in 2000.

The consolidation saved taxpayers millions of dollars and made local government more efficient, but, more important, Abramson said, it brought a metropolitan area of 750,000 together to move in one direction rather than have city and county governments fighting at cross purposes. And it created an atmosphere where political leaders began thinking and acting for regional economic growth, rather than for parochial interests.
Abramson spoke Wednesday morning at an Argus-sponsored breakfast at the Sarasota Yacht Club before roughly 70 people. He told them about a consolidation process that first surfaced in 1947 and had three failed voter referenda before voters finally approved consolidation.

On Tuesday, he visited the Sarasota and Pelican Press office and explained how Louisville and Jefferson County came together and the benefits that followed.

“In the past, our city and county blamed decisions made on each other,” Abramson said. “Now there’s more accountability and residents know and have more faith in their elected officials.”

By combining the city and county governments to create a new metro government, Louisville instantly became one of the nation’s top 20 cities. The city’s population ballooned from 256,000 residents to 694,000 residents and realized taxpayer savings of $700,000 immediately and $9.61 million overall once all consolidations were complete (see sidebar on YourObserver.com). A 20% reduction in government employees also resulted from the consolidation — although Abramson also noted it resulted in 100 new police officers put on the streets.

Consolidation didn’t come easily.

Louisville voters first rejected the idea in 1947. A half-century later, the idea boiled up again, urged on by Louisville’s business community and frustrations over seeing Indianapolis and Nashville, each two hours away, attracting more jobs.

But voters rejected consolidation again in 1982, by 2,000 votes. Thinking they were close, the consolidation advocates brought back the idea in 1983. But that year, the idea lost by 6,000 votes.

In 1985, newly elected Mayor Abramson and County Executive Harvey Sloane (an elected official position in Kentucky) decided on an interium course. They created a new compact that was adopted for 12 years and acted as the catalyst for eventual consolidation in 2000.

That compact agreed to the following:

• To cease a long-suffering debate between city and county officials over a 1.25% earnings tax on business payrolls. All new earnings taxes after 1986 were pooled and divided between the city and the county according to an agreed-upon formula.

This meant that even if the city landed a new business downtown, the county would benefit from the business tax — and vice versa.

“From that day forward no one bickered over where a business went because it helped everyone no matter where it went,” Abramson said.

• The city agreed to cease all annexation attempts for the life of the compact.

• Eight city-county agencies were reassigned to city or county government for policy direction and funding.
All the while, Abramson and Sloane worked together on crafting a new approach at consolidation. The consolidation was hashed out through a series of 26 one-on-one meetings and then numerous public meetings with elected officials.

During the compact, the city and county still each had a CEO, separate boards of directors and two agendas for a community just seeking one agenda.

Working with business leaders, who pooled together a $1 million consolidation campaign in 1998, a simpler proposal for merger was proposed. Voters approved it by a 54%-46% margin.

But the consolidation was a tough sell to members of city and county councilmen, who strongly opposed the effort. In contrast, all of the city’s previous mayors and county executives supported the effort.

The consolidation that won approval called for the executive and legislative branches of Louisville and Jefferson County to be merged. It stated no taxes would be raised or lowered. Also, the area’s 94 suburban cities and 21 suburban fire districts would be left intact, although some chose to consolidate later on.

The consolidation also guaranteed five of the 26 seats on the newly formed Louisville Metro Council to African-American representatives.

“It’s worked out exceptionally well for our citizens,” Abramson said. “Councilmen are reflective of what their citizens want.”

Previously, Abramson said, city and county boards and departments weren’t working as well as they should because there were two executives and two legislative branches that often had conflicting ideas of fiscal and policy direction.

Abramson said there were no union negotiation problems involving the merger because all employees were brought into another union.

“We discovered we are better together than we are fighting each other,” Abramson said.

Abramson said the driving force behind Louisville’s consolidation effort was the business community.

“Now we have one regional chamber of commerce and regional economic development effort that works together for the good of the entire region,” Abramson said. “We realize what we did wrong in the past and how we want to be moving forward.”

Sarasota City Commissioner Shannon Snyder, who heard Abramson talk about the consolidation at a special city workshop with his fellow commissioners Tuesday, said Abramson’s visit was interesting and important to hear.

While Abramson noted Louisville didn’t merge because of a financial crisis, Snyder pointed out he thinks that’s going to be the case in Sarasota.

“I think our financial position is so desperate, it’s not a matter of if and when we merge with the county, but when and how,” Snyder said. “Everyone in Sarasota has to grasp the seriousness of our situation, go to neutral corners, take a deep breath and figure out how to make this happen.”

Click here to view a graphic of the sample savings.