It’s rare that American small towns or counties merge, notes The Rural Blog.In fact, it’s only happened 42 times since the 19th century. In many cases, it would make sense for counties or towns to combine. Overlapping governments can cause confusion and fiscal irresponsibility. In these cases, two or more units of government aren’t really needed if they do essentially the same thing and cover the same people. But in reality, the merger rarely happens.
That’s because, often, one entity is in better fiscal shape than the other. That leads one town or county to feel that they’re getting a raw deal if they merge.
Said one expert: “History, politics and pride most times combine to undermine logic." For this reason, the number of governmental entities has grown so much in some states that they often don’t even know how many municipalities or governments they contain.