61 Rethinking local government: Essays on municipal reform - VATT

IntroductionIn their article, Slack and Bird use the merger of the Torontometropolitan area to illustrate the effects of reforming metropolitangovernance. In 1998 the Province of Ontario decided to merge theToronto metropolitan <strong>government</strong> and the six lower-tier municipalities(including the former City of Toronto) into one single-tier City ofToronto. In other words, the two-tier metropolitan system that hadbeen in place since 1954 was abandoned. The aim of the reformwas to reduce costs. But, according to the authors, the merger in theToronto area did not prove to be a big success. In their analysis, Slackand Bird find almost no cost savings. On the revenue side, residentialproperty taxes did not change much following the amalgamation.Business property taxes declined following the amalgamation largelyas a result of the amalgamated city’s policy of reducing the tax burdenon business and the changing provincial rules governing propertytaxes. The positive effects of the reform, according to Slack and Bird,include a fairer sharing of the tax base among the municipalities,harmonisation of service levels and increased political weight forToronto in a regional and national context.In the last section of their article, Slack and Bird comment on theplans to reform Finnish <strong>local</strong> <strong>government</strong>, especially metropolitangovernance. Although they emphasise that the Helsinki region differsconsiderably from the Toronto metropolitan area, they find it unlikelythat considerable economies of scale could be achieved throughamalgamation reforms in the Helsinki region. As for voluntarymunicipal cooperation, the authors cast serious doubt on the ideathat by cooperating municipalities would be able to develop a joint“regional” vision to coordinate service delivery, land use planning ortransportation. Therefore, Slack and Bird conclude that despite theproblems associated with the two-tier model, it would still be the bestalternative for reform in the Helsinki region.1.5 Municipal mergers and <strong>local</strong> representationThe fifth and last chapter of the book is written by Tuukka Saarimaaand Janne Tukiainen. Their article examines the importance of <strong>local</strong>10