Merger 2.0 Task Force Tweaks Final Recommendations

Mayor Greg Fischer says reviews of Louisville Metro’s merged city and county governments have been helpful and he expects to look at several short and long term fixes by year’s end.The Merger 2.0 Task Force was formed in January to review the 2003 consolidation. Task Force subcommittees have met for the past several months to write recommendations to submit to Fischer, who stopped by Friday's Task Force meeting where tweaks were made to final recommendations. Some ideas stood out, said Fischer.“Well one of the things that came forth from here is that the public still doesn’t understand what services are delivered inside the old city, outside of the old city, and the different cost structures associated with that. So we have an ongoing communication need, to make sure what people are paying for and what they’re getting in return for that," he said.Recommendations were expected earlier this month, but have been delayed. Fischer said he plans on discussing the recommendations over the next couple months. “So we’ve got some short term, long term and midterm solutions as well. We have some issues we’re going to have to take to Frankfort for this upcoming legislative session as well. So we’ll go through each one of those and evaluate those from what’s happening now, what do we need to take to Frankfort, and what are longer term initiatives," said Fischer.Changes to merger law must be made at the state level. Fischer wants to prepare any such legislative requests by the end of the year, he said.