1. The Legislature finds and declares that the consolidation of sparsely populated municipalities into contiguous municipalities having larger populations should be encouraged as a means to reduce the costs of local government. The Legislature also finds that there should be a simplified consolidation process when a municipality seeking consolidation is sparsely populated and when the resulting consolidated municipality will have the same form of government as the municipality absorbing the sparsely populated municipality.

L.1995,c.376,s.1.