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Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato hoped voters would see a referendum on merging Pittsburgh and Allegheny County governments on the May or November ballots this year.

May is out, and Onorato's hopes for November are slim.

"That's probably extremely optimistic and aggressive," he said. "But even if it takes five years or 10 years to get there, it's worth doing."

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy also supports the idea.

"I think it's worth doing, and I'd like to see it on the ballot to let the people in the city and the county express their views on it," Murphy said.

Onorato and Murphy aren't leading a long parade of those who support folding Pittsburgh city government into Allegheny County. Many other local leaders say gradually consolidating individual departments or government functions is more likely than a full merger.

"I think (a full merger) will not happen in the near future," said County Council President Rich Fitzgerald, D-Squirrel Hill. "I think it will be more that both entities see ways to save money and eliminate duplication."

Deciding how to do a merger is harder than deciding whether one should happen, said City Councilman Doug Shields.

"Nobody has done the hard, time-consuming work of figuring out just how you go about consolidating several different computer systems being used by the city and county, what you do about disparities in pay between people doing the same work, and all the hundreds of other details that would have to be addressed," he said.

Much has changed since Onorato pledged his support for a merger early last year.

Murphy announced Dec. 21 that he won't seek another term. That means Onorato's pro-merger partner will be gone from office in a year.

City Council approved the Act 47 recovery plan Dec. 2, somewhat easing pressure on city officials to find ways to save money.

Under state Act 47, the state Department of Community and Economic Development appointed a team in December 2003 to find ways to balance the city budget. It is one of two state-appointed groups seeking to rein in spending and find additional revenue for Pittsburgh.

Murphy said he is committed to progress on a merger.

"I'd like to see it on the ballot this year, before I leave office," he said.

City Councilman Alan Hertzberg, council's finance chairman, said Murphy appears to be focusing on Downtown redevelopment and other projects during his remaining year in office.

"I don't get the sense he is focusing on city-county cooperation," Hertzberg said. Arranging consolidations or a merger will take more time than Murphy has left, Hertzberg said.

Onorato said Murphy's lame-duck status could move a merger forward.

"It could be that a mayor with 12 months left in his term doesn't have to focus on politics," he said.

Others, including Fitzgerald, said a spirited mayoral race could focus debate on the issue.

Progress toward a merger referendum has been slow, but there has been some movement on eliminating duplication of services, said City Councilman Bill Peduto, who chaired a council committee formed in 2003 to investigate the issue.

He said county police now handle all fingerprinting of suspects, and the city and county 911 dispatch centers finally have been merged successfully. The 911 move saves the city about $1.5 million a year in operating expenses, said Craig Kwiecinski, Murphy's spokesman.

City and county purchasing departments began working this month toward a merger and will consolidate jobs through attrition. It is too soon to know how many jobs will be eliminated or how much money will be saved, Kwiecinski said.

A computer mapping of recreation and senior citizen facilities is under way to help find regional facilities that can be merged. Peduto said he hopes the mapping can be finished early this year so discussions on combining facilities can begin.

Financial pressures pushing consolidation, if not full merger, remain despite passage of the Act 47 financial recovery plan, said Bill Lieberman, chairman of the state oversight board, the state panel charged with ensuring the city sticks to a five-year financial plan.

"I think the recovery plan is just a start," Lieberman said. "I think a merger of services is crucial to the region."

Lieberman stresses that the board firmly backs combining services, but has not concluded that a full city-county merger would save money.

Onorato says cost savings are not the driving force behind his merger plan.

"This passed in other cities not because of cost savings," he said. "That's going to be minimal."

Instead, he backs the merger to increase government efficiency, to allow economic development experts to speak with one voice in selling the region and to build the area's clout with state and federal government leaders.

Onorato said business executives who want to consider investing in the region now have to decide whom to visit first: the mayor, county chief executive or representatives of two different economic development departments.

Folding the city into Allegheny County would transform Pittsburgh from the 58th-largest city in the nation to the seventh. That would make it more attractive to business, Onorato said, and put it in better position to lobby for federal money.

Louisville, Ky., did not land a host of new businesses merely by becoming a larger city on paper following a 2003 city-county merger, said Daryl Snyder, director of strategic relationships at Greater Louisville Inc., the region's chamber of commerce.

Rather, he said, the merger of Louisville and Jefferson County brought radical change to how government functions, and that change has already paid major dividends.

Snyder said the region was able to save 500 jobs and add 1,600 more at a credit processing center last year when Citicorp bought a Sears finance operation. He said under the new government, Louisville leaders were able to bring zoning, site selection, tax and economic development officials together with Citicorp executives and make fast decisions.

"It made a difference," Snyder said. "They told us."

Louisville grew from the 64th-largest metropolitan area in the country to the 16th largest through the merger.

Jake Haulk, president of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a Castle Shannon research group, said the importance of making Pittsburgh bigger could be exaggerated.

"Look at Philadelphia," he said. "They're a big market, and they're still losing population."

The institute considers consolidation of functions critical for Pittsburgh's future, Haulk said, but sees a full merger as a longer-term project.

He said the city should cut long-term debt by selling or privatizing parking and sewer and water authorities and other agencies before serious merger talks can begin. In the meantime, other functions that the city and county duplicate can be merged, including parks and payroll departments.

One of the biggest obstacles to a full merger is the city's $2 billion debt.

"I'm a voice for my suburban residents, and I'm not going to saddle them with the city's debts," said County Councilman Vince Gastgeb, of Bethel Park, chairman of the council's Republican caucus.

Onorato hopes a one-time infusion of state cash could pay down part of the debt, but some see that as unlikely.

"The state government is not coming in and taking over the city's $2 billion debt that it has used on supposed development schemes that have failed," said state Rep. Mike Turzai, R-McCandless.

Turzai opposes a merger, saying the real debate about improving government efficiency should center on privatization of city authorities.

Placing a merger referendum before county voters would require an act of the state Legislature, and Turzai said the issue is not even on the radar screen for most legislators.

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, said he has talked extensively with Onorato about a merger, adding that the Legislature needs to learn a lot more about the concept's potential benefits and drawbacks before he decides whether to back the idea and before a referendum moves forward.

"I don't think it has to be 10 years off, but talk about having it on the ballot in May or November, I'm not prepared to endorse," Frankel said.

He said a county divided into 130 municipal governments is outmoded and needs to change somehow.

The merger plan backed by Onorato sidesteps potential opposition from municipal governments outside of Pittsburgh. He calls for those municipal governments, whose independence is often jealously guarded by officeholders, to be untouched.

Local school districts also would remain independent.

Pittsburgh Controller Tom Flaherty, who is also chairman of the county Democratic Party, believes the city will be merged into the county, and the 129 other municipalities will be swallowed up later.

He sees a merger as a way for Republicans to win political power in a city where they could not gain it otherwise, and believes a merger would be bad for city and county residents.

"I'm not for it because I think it will mean higher taxes for suburban residents and reduced services for city residents," he said.

Nevertheless, Flaherty said the merger is coming because powerful interests including the Act 47 team and the oversight board are intent on taking authority out of the hands of city officials.

"I think the skids are greased to go in that direction," he said.

He cited the merger movement as one reason he decided not to run for mayor. "I didn't want to be the last mayor of Pittsburgh," he said.

Onorato said the next step is to form a panel of local government, business and civic leaders to review all aspects of a merger, from costs to transforming political structures to ensuring minority voices are not diluted in a larger county government.

The panel would work in conjunction with city and county governments and send recommendations to state legislators for action.

Onorato said he plans to talk to Murphy about forming such a committee.

Onorato said reform of county government already has moved forward with the city-county 911 merger and with the placement of a row office reduction referendum on the May ballot.

That referendum would reduce the number of elected county row offices from 10 to three, leaving only the district attorney, sheriff and treasurer.

"I think a merger is the next logical step in home rule government," Onorato said.

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