The structure of city government is usually better defined and resistant to change, and would “win” over the annexed towns. Usually there’s a ward structure that benefits a certain type of political machinery. The backbone of suburban politics are usually powered by things like volunteer fire departments, schools or other orgs. Those types of organizations will fight hard because unionized city organizations have more people and seniority, etc.
No sane person would vote for annexation who isn’t part of a city.
https://art19.com/shows/the-impact/episodes/99ffb9d5-58d6-44...
> The incredible shrinking city
> For decades, Memphis grew by bringing its suburbs into the city limits. City officials thought this suburb-gobbling policy would be an economic boon-- that it would bring in tax revenue.
> Instead, the policy was an economic disaster, especially for the majority black neighborhoods in the city's core. In this episode, we’ll tell you about the consequences of Memphis’ sprawl, and the city’s plan to fix its past mistakes.
This article should not be treating it like such a panacea, because it certainly went poorly for Memphis
Even a place like NYC that did it’s annexing 100+ years ago feels the problems. When I was growing up in Queens, anyone we interfaced with in city government locally was a castoff banished to the provinces or a political idiot.
The consequences of that can be seen all over.
Best schools, safe, and has a high property tax.
10 miles south of us is Detroit. Where the Detroit voters re-elected Kawammi kilpatrick despite having constant public corruption.
Do I want those voters to impact my schools? Do those voters want to spend 9,000$/yr on property taxes?
Its far too simplistic to think that there is only redundancies at play.
Edit: Also, it looks like Kwame Kilpatrick hasn't stood for office in more than a decade.
Exactly what axe are you grinding, here?
These kid's parents work two or three jobs, so we give them subsidized after school programs. Their housholds are food insecure, so we give them breakfast and lunch so they can focus on schooling and not their empty stomachs.
So much of this spending is just to try and bring these students closer to parity in the moment, but despite all of that, they don't get any that before they enter school in kindergarten, so they're sort of perpetually behind. It has next to nothing to do with government waste, or throwing good money after bad despite what that terrible "Waiting for Superman" movie told all the white flight parents looking for validation.