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Reformed County Government and Service Delivery Performance: An Integrated Study of Florida Counties

Abstract This study tested the proposition that reformed government positively correlates with cost-efficient service delivery. A county government reform index developed for this study is a form of government, home-rule status, method of election, number of government jurisdictions, and number of elected officials. The government reform index was used to assess the impact of reform on two measures of service output, (1) mean county road pavement conditions and, (2) per capita county road improvement and maintenance expenditures. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews of county officials, secondary archival sources, and a survey of 544 elected and appointed officials from Florida's 67 counties. The results converged in finding that reformed Florida counties are more likely than unreformed counties to provide better road service and to spend less on road expenditures. Because the county government reform index was operationalized acknowledging the reform theory as well as the public-choice model the results help explain contradicting findings in the urban service research.