By Larry Jones
March 15, 2004

At a March 1 meeting of the Large Urban County Caucus in Washington, D.C. during the legislative conference of the National Association of Counties, Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson spoke to county officials about the successful merger of the city of Louisville with Jefferson County. He told county delegates that the process wasn't easy, explaining that local leaders had lobbied for the merger for 4 decades and it took 4 separate votes on referendums before the citizens agreed.

Mayor Abramson said voters finally approved the merger after carrying out a successful campaign under the banner of "unity" with support from the local chamber of commerce and bipartisan support from every living mayor and county executive. During the campaign, he said citizens were educated on how the merger could help transform Louisville from a medium size city to a major metropolitan area. Citizens were told how the merger would give the area a more effective voice in lobbying for federal and state funds, as well as recruiting a new business or attracting a sports team. They were also told how the merger would help address some of the area's most challenging issues from economic development to lagging educational attainment, from improving air quality to bridging long'standing racial and economic divides.

Abramson told county official that voters adopted the referendum to merge the city and county two and a half years ago and the new city of Louisville Metro was born on January 6, 2003. As its first mayor, Abramson said he started out with with two versions of almost everything. "No more. We-ve merged and streamlined," he said. He further explained "we-ve invested time and money over the past year creating one finance and accounting system, one human resource and payroll system and one IT system." Abramson also pointed out that the merger was achieved without raising taxes or cutting services. The "merger helped us find efficiencies: we eliminated 700 fully funded jobs, about 10 percent of our work force. We trimmed overtime. We put in place fleet-management economies," he said.