ABSTRACT
Shared service arrangements, also referred to as interlocal cooperation, service-sharing, and joint public service, are an increasingly heralded metastrategy for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of local government service delivery. As evidenced by this volume and other research that has come before, 1 shared services is widely viewed as an important innovation in the way local governments provide public services and otherwise create public value. With shrinking resources and ever-expanding demand for service, local governments must figure out how to do more (or at least the same) with less. Furthermore, as states face their own fiscal crises, they are increasingly looking to boost efficiencies in local service delivery as a way to lessen the burden of reduced state support. Thus we see states using both carrots and sticks to incentivize shared services.2
