DragonFlyEye.Net
by Thomas Belknap

This morning brings us an interesting discussion of government consolidation from Marist, who post the results of their poll: 4/12: “Striking a Balance” | Home of the Marist Poll: Pebbles and Pundits.

What this poll seems to do a good job of is testing for semantic variation: how people react to different phrases that mean the same things:

• 68% of New Yorkers have a positive impression of the term shared services. 60% have a similar reaction to government consolidation, and 58% say the same about merged services. 52% of New Yorkers have a positive impression of regionalism. However, dissolving local government is perceived positively by 31%.
• There is no consensus about the definition of consolidation. Half of residents describe consolidation asshared services while 44% define it as merged government.
• Pluralities of New Yorkers expect government consolidation to decrease costs (48%) and increase efficiency (45%).

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