Mergers and Reform
There is currently a heated political debate in Finland about reforming the municipality system. Essentially, a large number of small municipalities is seen as detrimental to the provision of public services, having been originated from a time when horses and carriages were used for transport, and there have been suggestions of state-imposed mergers. A committee led by Minister for Regional and Municipal Affairs Hannes Manninen suggested creating a two-tier system of municipalities with different powers, while the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (Kuntaliitto) favoured a system where municipalities would be units of at least 20,000–30,000 inhabitants, cf. the current median at 4,700. The motion has been inspired by a similar reform in Denmark (see Municipalities of Denmark). Former government (Vanhanen II), however, planned to not impose mergers.
Recently, a large number of voluntary mergers have been agreed on. 14 mergers were completed in 2007 and one in 2008. In 2009, there were even more, and many of those mergers consolidated more than two municipalities. Several cities merged with surrounding rural municipalities in Hämeenlinna, Loviisa, Salo, Kouvola, Seinäjoki, Naantali, Kauhava, Lohja, Ekenäs, Jyväskylä and Oulu in 2009. In total, there were 30 mergers, involving 92 municipalities, that reduce the number of municipalities by 62. The year 2009 also marked the end of the last maalaiskunta, a municipality surrounding a city but sharing the name, in Jyväskylä. There were four mergers in 2011 and six in 2012; three will take effect in 2013. In the 2000s, the number of municipalities was voluntarily reduced from 444 to 336.
In 2012, Katainen's government published an extensive plan aiming at merging municipalities to reach a target of population 20,000 per municipality. Commuter belts have also been proposed as a target by a government committee, such that municipalities where more than 35% of workforce commutes would be subject to a merger.
Read more about this topic: Municipalities Of Finland
Famous quotes containing the word reform:
“There is no such thing as accomplishing a righteous reform by the use of “expediency.” There is no such thing as sliding up- hill. In morals the only sliders are backsliders.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)