Just as Richmond Heights and Clayton near the end of their joint study on merging the cities, legislation has been introduced in Jeff City allowing for the consideration of merging the governments of the City of St. Joseph and Buchanan County.  Kudos to the local officials Buchanan County and St. Joseph for their desire to at least consider the idea.  I was in St. Joe once, about seven years ago, for the wedding of a close friend, and I recall thinking at the time about what a wonderful place it was but that it could use some local government consolidation.  This government consolidation idea could be a great example to the rest of Missouri if it goes forward, which the optimist in me hopes it does and the realist in me doubts it will.  Lord knows we have way too many counties in Missouri, with 114 (+ 1) we have the 4th most counties of any state.  As at least 100 of those counties have small populations by any normal standard, we could certainly use some tax-saving consolidation at the county level.