It's time to create a regional government in Greater Cincinnati that does a better job of distributing resources, or else the city and most of its suburbs will spiral into permanent decline.

        That's the conclusion of Myron Orfield, a regionalism guru hired by the local group Citizens for Civic Renewal to study the social costs that the Gallis report missed.

        In a preliminary report to be released today, Mr. Orfield says Cincinnati and nearby suburbs are battling similar problems: high poverty rates, declining schools and dwindling tax bases.

        Meanwhile, booming communities in Warren and Boone counties are struggling to pay for new sewers and schools.

        His solution: bolster the power of the Ohio-Kentucky—Indiana Regional Council of Governments to deal with regional issues.

        “If things stay the same, you just throw your communities away,” said Mr. Orfield, a Minnesota state legislator who has conducted similar studies of the nation's 25 largest metropolitan areas. “That doesn't seem right.”

        Mr. Orfield said his report demonstrates the human cost of years of Greater Cincinnati's failure to work together as a region. His report comes nearly a year and a half after a study by Charlotte, N.C.-based urban planner Michael Gallis urged Greater Cincinnati's governments, businesses and institutions to do a better job of cooperating to promote economic development.

        Mr. Orfield will present his preliminary findings to the public at 9:30 a.m. today at the Christ Church Cathedral at 318 E. Fourth St. He plans to collect opinions from business leaders, elected officials and the public this weekend and complete the report in two months. Citizens for Civic Renewal will pay Mr. Orfield $82,399 for the report.

        Mr. Orfield said many social and sprawl-related problems can be curbed if communities do a better job of sharing resources.

        He cited the flight of middle-class families from suburbs closest to Cincinnati such as Newport, Covington and Lockland to areas such as Florence and Deerfield Township.

        This creates poorer school districts and declining property values in these older suburbs. Meanwhile, the newer, booming communities have a difficult time handling rapid growth.

        He promotes tax sharing as a way to stem the decline of some areas and prevent the rapid increase of other areas.

        In Minneapolis, communities share 40 percent of commercial property tax collected, so individual governments have little incentive to battle one another for the same company.

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