SMALLER COUNTY BOARD MEANS LESS DEMOCRACY.(EDITORIAL)(GUEST COLUMN)(Column)

From: The Capital Times | Date: January 12, 2006 | Copyright information

Byline: Al Matano

A new Wisconsin law allows county boards to reduce the number of their members. The Wisconsin State Journal and one member of the Dane County Board say that Dane County should reduce the size of the County Board. I disagree.

Small is good, right? Well ... not so fast. Let's consider some of the impacts of this.

Citizens will lose representation. It's simple arithmetic. Dane County's population is about 450,000. The County Board has 37 members. That means that each member represents about 12,000 citizens. Cut the number of members in half, as has ...

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