Townships are the most plentiful form of local government in Ohio, but a report argues they are the most cost-effective and shouldn’t be consolidated.

An Ohio Township Association study last month found that all local governments statewide spend about $48 billion in taxpayer dollars per year. Townships account for 2.7 percent of that spending, the report says, while cities account for more than 21 percent and school districts nearly 45 percent.

Talk has increased about merging government entities as a way to reduce spending and local taxes in the face of tight budgets, said Matt DeTemple, executive director of the township association.

While the organization isn’t advocating consolidating townships, Lavea Brachman, executive director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center, said townships shouldn’t be exempt from conversations about reining in expenses.

“All forms of government in the state need to look critically at how they’re doing business,” Brachman said.

The township report also reviewed other factors, arguing that townships are often more responsive to taxpayers in part because they are more accessible. It also noted townships have entered the state’s Local Government Fiscal Distress program less frequently than other government entities.

The report argued consolidation doesn’t always provide the intended savings. In many cases, the report said, when two entities merge, salaries and labor costs often increase to match that of the more expensive entity.

A 2010 report from the Greater Ohio Policy Center showed the state has 3,800 local government jurisdictions, including 350 cities, almost 700 villages and more than 1,300 townships. With so many jurisdictions, the report noted in many cases those jurisdictions often duplicate services including infrastructure, staffing and services provided to residents, leading to higher costs overall.

The report wasn’t meant to single out townships, Brachman said, but said it showed all entities throughout the state need to take a closer look at areas where they can save money and eliminate duplication.

“To reduce government should be in the best interests of everybody,” Brachman said.

Part of the reason for the township association study, DeTemple said, was to show that while thousands of government entities exist across the state, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the best solution is consolidation.

“We felt that a lot of those reports didn’t go far enough in their analysis,” DeTemple said.

Several township trustees in Clark and Champaign counties said they have made efforts to work with other entities to cut costs in recent years.

In Mad River Twp., trustees are working with the county and the village of Enon to split the cost for four tornado sirens. The township and village worked with the county to secure a roughly $65,000grant to cover some of the cost, while the township and village will split the remaining share, said Kathy Estep, a Mad River Twp. trustee.

The township often works with the Clark County Engineer’s Office when seeking bids for road projects to get a better price.

“Township government is a bargain for people,” Estep said. “We aren’t fancy. We don’t have a lot of administrative staff to do our work. We’re hands on, and I think we’re really close to our residents, and I think that helps keep us efficient and effective.”

Township trustees have heard talk of consolidation for years, although it’s become more frequent since the Great Recession said Joe Clark, a German Twp. trustee. But checks and balances are already in place to limit spending at the local level. Townships, for example, are only able to raise revenue by asking voters to approve property tax levies, he said.

“They’re in place to keep us in check, and they do a good job of doing that,” Clark said.

The debate about consolidation has become more common, and good arguments can be made on both sides, Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland said.

Residents are typically fond of their local governments, Copeland said, and it’s unlikely that townships will be consolidated soon.

The challenge, he said, is to look at each service provided and decide whether it’s more efficient to provide it at the local level or if savings could be had by merging with a larger entity. Some services, such as fire protection, can be costly and in many cases can be handled on a more regional level. Programs that affect a smaller number of residents are likely best handled at the local level, he said.

“It depends on what service you’re providing,” Copeland said.

At the state level, no specific legislation seeks to consolidate townships, said state Rep. Bob Hackett, R-London. However, Hackett said legislators have taken a closer look at the idea in recent years and have seen progress in getting smaller entities like townships to evaluate the services they provide to residents.

Any changes to the current model will likely have to come from the townships themselves, rather than from the top down, Hackett said.

The increasing focus on efficiency forces entities at all levels to re-evaluate costs and services provided to residents, he said, which in the long run benefits taxpayers.

“You can’t exist just to be existing anymore,” Hackett said.

Residents are right to be concerned about cost, Estep said, but merging into one larger entity isn’t necessarily the answer.

“I would argue that we’re already pretty frugal and trying to save money where we can by the cooperative agreements we have,” Estep said.