The pressures than can lead small towns to merge

Depending on the outcome of a mail-in vote now underway, two small towns near Duluth may soon merge. Under the proposal, Thomson would become a neighborhood of Carlton at the end of the year. Dave Peters, who directs the Ground Level project for MPR News, wrote that "If you're counting, that would reduce the number of Minnesota cities to 853."

"Consolidation of local government has often been talked about and encouraged as a way to make services more efficient, but out and out merger doesn't happen very often," Peters observed. "The last time anybody did this in Minnesota was in 2007 when Elko and New Market consolidated to become Elko New Market."

Peters joins The Daily Circuit to talk about the pressures that can lead small towns to merge.