At last the SMH is printing an article that shows the other side of the LG amalgamation debate. Nearly $500m to amalgamate 152 councils to 38 – and much more if amalgamations are not “voluntary”. And every amalgamation is destroying community value. Sophie Cotsis is quoted as saying that the amalgamation program is a “complete sham”. That would seem to be quite accurate. The WA govt got into trouble for under-financing the cost of proposed amalgamations there. Full SMH article is here.