A county-city merger being considered

El Paso County and Colorado Springs officials are considering an unprecedented degree of cooperation - a move born of trying to stretch tax dollars to meet the rising cost of providing services.

   A countywide sales tax measure - likely headed for the November ballot - would upgrade services for the region's 600,000 residents while making the delivery more cost-effective for government, backers say.

   And that raises the question: Why not go all the way and merge the two governments?

   After all, why should Colorado Springs and El Paso County have separate staffs to look after some of the same functions, such as law enforcement, road maintenance and parks? Could they jettison a few layers of management and save taxpayers millions of dollars if they merged into, say, the city and county of Colorado Springs?

   Maybe they could, experts said, but the idea of a citycounty merger opens a can of worms the size of Pikes Peak.

   "When you consolidate, bigger isn't always better," said Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, a lobbying and education organization for Colorado's cities.

   The issues aren't as simple as eliminating duplication, Mamet said.

   There are practical challenges, such as the impact on residents in far-flung areas such as the community of Rush, about 40 miles east of downtown Colorado Springs. Would they pay the same taxes as urban residents? If so, would they get the same services, such as snowplowed streets and quick responses from police and firefighters?

   No one knows how much money, if any, could be saved by merging the governments. That would partly depend on the answers to more philosophical questions, such as which positions in the government should be elected, and which should be appointed jobs in the bureaucracy.

   Would the positions of police chief, now appointed by the city manager, and county sheriffi, now up for election every four years, be combined?

   There's also the matter of who would be in charge and how much they would be paid. City Council members are paid a nominal salary of $6,250 a year, while county commissioners earn $87,000.

   Other potential snags include the fate of city-owned businesses such as Colorado Springs Utilities and Memorial Health System. And what would become of the seven other municipalities inside El Paso County: Palmer Lake, Monument, Manitou Springs, Ramah, Calhan, Green Mountain Falls and Fountain?

   Sorting out those questions would require a huge amount of study, which might not yield anything useful, Mamet said.

   "This is complicated stuff. It's fairly boring. It's not sexy. And it may wind up raising more questions than it answers," he said.

   The idea of merging Colorado Springs and El Paso County came up recently as a citizens group proposed a 1 percent sales tax to fund public health and safety agencies. The estimated $72 million the tax would raise in its first year would be divided among local governments, including the county's smaller towns. The bulk of the money would go to El Paso County and Colorado Springs.

   No one has formally proposed merging the two governments, or even studying the idea, but that hasn't stopped some elected officials from weighing in. The El Paso County commissioners recently dismissed a merger as impractical.

   They're not the first to reach that conclusion, said Terry Harris, the county's former chief administrator, who retired in January 2007. County and city officials have toyed with the idea, and rejected it, for at least 40 years, he said.

   The arrangement seems to work in parts of the state. Denver has been a combined city and county since it was carved out of Arapahoe County in 1902. Today, Denver and El Paso County have roughly the same population, but Denver covers 156 square miles, compared with El Paso County's 2,129 square miles.

   Denver residents pay more to their government. Denver's general fund spending for 2008 is $867.8 million, or $1,475 per person. The combined general fund spending for El Paso County and Colorado Springs this year is $343.7 million, or $585 per person.

   Broomfield, a suburb north of Denver, became the state's 64th county in 2001, after statewide voter approval in 1998. The City and County of Broomfield covers 33.6 square miles. Its general fund spending this year is $90.8 million, or $1,690 per person.

   Another Denver suburb, Aurora, considered seceding from Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties in talks with a citizens panel that ended in March. The panel recommended against forming a City and County of Aurora, citing logistical diffculties, unknown costs and general contentment with the services city residents get from the county governments.

   Harris cited different factors to support his position that merging Colorado Springs and El Paso County is unworkable. One barrier is the large number of independent local governments, called special districts, that provide city-like services to residents outside Colorado Springs city limits. Dozens of agencies such as the Falcon Fire Protection District and the Security Sanitation District have their own elected boards that would be unlikely to give up their positions and disband to let a regional government take over, Harris said. Each district has its own tax rate, and many have considerable debt that would have to be paid off if they closed their doors.

   On the other hand, Colorado Springs could secede from El Paso County and form its own county government. But that would leave the remains of El Paso County high and dry, Harris said. About 64 percent of the population is Colorado Springs residents, and they pay a similar proportion of the tax income for El Paso County. If Colorado Springs struck out on its own, the leftover county government might not have enough money to carry out basic functions.

   "Is it going to make governance better? Probably not. Is it going to make it more expensive and confused? Yeah, definitely," Harris said.

   A complete merging of the two governments is not the only option, Harris said. He supports further cooperation between the governments, along the lines of the proposed sales tax to fund public health and safety agencies. Several examples of cooperation already exist. There's the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, where member governments combine resources to conduct urban planning activities. In 2004, voters approved the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, which levies a 1 percent sales tax in most parts of the county. The PPRTA tax raises about $70 million annually to pay for road building, maintenance and public bus service.

   Harris said there are opportunities to create similar agencies, such as a regional health department. As it is, the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment is an independent agency with a board of directors appointed by the county commissioners.

   A regional parks agency is another possibility. Colorado Springs and El Paso County both have large holdings of parkland. The El Paso County parks have come under threat recently as officials struggled with a budget shortfall and explored selling some land, to the horror of some residents. A regional parks authority could protect parkland if it had a separate funding source, such as a property tax.

   Despite the advantages, Harris said such a scenario would be a tough sell.

   "To get the city to give up their park structure, or to get the county to give up their park structure, it's a turf war," he said. 

   CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0187 or perry.swanson@gazette.com