Promote municipal mergers.
An example: In the canton of Aargau, there are almost 200 autonomous municipalities. Many places flow seamlessly into each other. Infrastructure is shared, but the tax burden is unevenly distributed. Mergers are rare.
Problem
- Every municipality needs its own administration. This leads to higher costs than necessary.
- Many administrations cannot find enough specialists to cover their service mandate.
- Many municipalities have grown together spatially over the years.
- Newcomers sometimes perceive municipal boundaries as arbitrary.
- The public infrastructure, e.g. train station, is used by several municipalities but financed by only one municipality.
Solution
- Municipalities are legally obliged to negotiate and bring a merger to a vote within a reasonable period if they seamlessly border each other spatially and the tax rates differ by, for example, more than 15%.
- Municipalities should not be viewed only as financial constructs. A municipality also has an identity and thus loses an identity in a merger. Why not merge only the administration and remain politically independent? Costs decrease, knowledge is shared!
- I think merging the municipal administration is a good idea. Being politically independent is no problem. A MUST is the tax office: individual municipal tax is no problem, but a larger municipality would have to manage this. Better data security and no Vetterliwirtschaft.
Benefit
- Synergies in municipal administration
- Sufficient skilled workers for municipal administrations
- Same tax rate for everyone living in the same geographic area and using the public infrastructure together.
- Better coordinated spatial planning.
- Overall lower taxes needed due to less redundancy in administration.
Public support
Total votes: 34
Breakdown: FullyOnBoard: 8, SoundsGood: 8, NothingAgainstIt: 7, NeedForDiscussion: 5, NoChance: 4, Concerns: 2
Discussion
- Peter Pianegonda (2026-08-06): Grundsätzlich ist das föderale System gut, denn die Entscheidungen sollen auf der tiefsten Verwaltungsebene gefällt werden. Zentralisierung / Zusammelegung führt zu Identitätsverlust, geringerer Teilnahme am politischen Prozess. Ich habe jedoch Verständnis, wenn wie im AG benachbarte Gemeinden praktisch zusammengewachsen sind, meinsame Infrastrukturen, Schulen, Werkbetriebe etc. betreiben, dort kann eine Fusion Sinn ergeben, allerding nur, wenn die Stimmbürgerinnen der beteiligten Gemeinden dem zustimmen. Bei Fusionen geht es immer ums Geld. Wenn die Steuerfüsse zu unterschiedlich sind, dann wird es schwierig. Forcierte Fusionen sind abzulehnen.