ABSTRACT
Urbanists have long noted that political incorporation allows citizens in metropolitan areas to use government boundaries to engage in de facto segregation by race and class. Political incorporation provides affluent jurisdictions some isolation from the core city. Metropolitan stratification could be addressed if citizens in wealthy jurisdictions perceived it as in their self-interest to assist residents from poor jurisdictions: urban disintegration brings economic consequences for all. Structural reforms that seek greater efficiency in government by altering spatial boundaries have been proposed as remedies for stratification. Stratification between governments occurs when the socioeconomic characteristics of citizens in different jurisdictions maldistribute the demand for services and the fiscal resources necessary to meet that demand. Revenue sharing proposals that seek greater equity between governments by reallocating tax base have also been proposed to reduce stratification. The needs-based formula allocated the largest share of revenue to Hennepin County and Ramsey County, the two jurisdictions with the greatest "need.".
