Municipal Reform of Heigard

On July 4th, 2009 the National Assembly of Heigard approved a bill for a Reform in the Number of Municipalities of Heigard. The approval was obtained with a majority of 179 votes over 139 opposing votes and 3 "null" votes. The reason was to give the new municipalities greater financial and professional sustainability.

Overview
Since 1903, Heigard was divided in 799 communes which was considered an extremely high number of municipalties for a country the size of Heigard. The most of those communities were several small villages and towns that had existed for centuries in the territory.

In modern times the smallest communes, many having less than 1,000 inhabitants virtually depended on the bigger communes nearby in matters of government, finace and general infrastructure. However, several small communes agglomerated and appointed a local council to manage the area comprising the community. In other cases, the communes of an arrondissement were represented by the respective Prefect.

For example, the Luge arrondissement in Port Habsburg comprised 45 micro-communes up to 2001, and was isolated from larger communes and urban centers, creating a poor management and infrastucture. The Government had seen this problem elsewhere in the country, but never acted to improve the life quality of such areas.

Reform
On November 13th 2009, President Johann Meukervan, supported by the Ministries of Interior, Finance and Health and Social Welfare, passed a bill to the National Assembly to disscuss a re-organization of the municipalties of Heigard.

The bill contained the following proposals:


 * The grouping of communes would be based on population, rather than territorial area.
 * Up to 50 communes can group to amount a 10,000 population.
 * In some instances, the communes would be merged with the nearest commune/city if holds more than 10,000.
 * Arrondissements would remain unaltered unless affected by mergers.
 * Trans-departamental mergers would not be attainable in benefit of population, to avoid confusion between people living in communes bordering another department.

After 15 days of harsh dialogue among the deputies the bill was approved by majority and January 1, 2010 was set as date for the reform to take effect.