With dozens of local governments throughout California facing deep, deep, deficits, some experts predict that eventually, cities as we know them could cease to exist. One town that could change the way it operates is Half Moon Bay, just down the coast from San Francisco. Despite its world class waves and charming downtown, Half Moon Bay is sinking in debt, and like many other cities in Northern California, is planning to reduce its biggest expenditure by out-sourcing its police department to the county.

“I think all cities are going to have to look at new models of service delivery. We’re going to have to pay for the services we all enjoy,” say Mayor Marina Fraser.

Futurist Paul Saffo, a managing director with Discern, says the new reality could amount to a game-changer for cities. “One of the problems, particularly here in California, is people don’t want new taxes, and they don’t want big government, but they still want all of their government services,” he says. “Something has got to give.”

Saffo argues cities can dis-incorporate, and cease to exist, an option recently considered in Half Moon Bay, or, they can merge with their neighbors.

Across from San Francisco, in the East Bay, a former mayor is proposing Fremont join Newark and Union City, to become, perhaps, ‘Frewark City,” with one city manager instead of three, consolidated police and fire departments, and so on, eventually saving millions.

While no one wants to lose their hometown police and fire departments, Saffo says the least painful solution may be outsourcing, and “for cities to say, maybe we don’t need our own fire department, and in fact, maybe a county-wide fire department would deliver better services for everyone, at lower cost.”

Back in Half Moon Bay, city councilman Rick Kowalczyk argues it’s time to reinvent local government. “If you look across the country, there’s a bit of a wave: ‘OK, enough taxes, let’s go back to the drawing board, do something different.’ Corporations do this all the time. I think its a challenge for the city to do that now. ”

Of course, local governments could simply spend and do less. But if residents demand the same services with no tax increases, the result could be fewer individual cities, more mergers, and, perhaps, some new names on the map.