The study doesn’t analyze how much money might be saved by this plan (or, as the World-Herald article notes, whether it would be politically possible), but it seems to be intended as a concrete plan that could be used as a starting point for discussion or further research. The study also provides an estimate of the amount of extra money it would cost the citizens of those regions to travel that additional distance for county services. (These numbers are across the entire regions, not just the counties I’ve named.)

So what does it give us? For Central Nebraskans, here’s how it breaks down.
— Greeley, Hamilton, Howard and Merrick counties: You’re now headed to Grand Island. Total cost for your region: $10,941.
— Garfield, Loup, Sherman and Valley counties: You’re going to Broken Bow. Total cost for your region: $8,484.
— Boone and Nance counties: You’re going to Columbus. Total cost for your region: $10,835.
— Polk County: You’re headed down to York. Total cost for your region: $18,549.
— Wheeler County: You’re going up to O’Neill. Total cost for your region: $2,946.
— Every other county I didn’t mention (that’s Adams, Buffalo, Custer and Hall): You lucked out. Nothing changes for you.
— Oh, by the way, the eight counties that make up the Omaha and Lincoln metro areas are unchanged, too.

So how does the map hold up? The researchers say their goal is to keep people from having to drive more than 60 miles for county services and keep overall populations for regions under 60,000 when possible. In Central Nebraska, at least, they seem to do a decent job with that. There’s a few spots that fall outside the distance goals in our area (Spalding-Grand Island is 67 miles, Petersburg-Columbus is 58), and the Grand Island-based area exceeds 60,000 people, but generally, they seem to meet their own goals.

There’s still the question of whether this would be desirable. While county government isn’t nearly the source of community pride that local schools are, most rural Nebraskans seem to resent anything that could be perceived as a loss of local control — especially when it would result in some inconvenience. And as Larry Dix of the Nebraska Association of County Officials noted in the World-Herald article, it wouldn’t change the amount of roads to maintain or crime to stop.

On the other hand, there could be some real savings in consolidating some the state’s smallest counties, though this study doesn’t tell us precisely how much. It might be worth looking into for the long-term’s sake, though a lot of things would have to happen for rural Nebraskans to be in the mood to support something like this.

What do you think? A reasonable idea worth taking a look at, or another misguided attempt to marginalize rural Nebraska?