I WAS PROUD to serve as mayor of the city of Providence from 1984 to 1991.

I will also be pleased and proud if a candidate is elected mayor of Providence County in the near future.

The time has come. In the interest of efficiency, economy and equity, Rhode Island should unify its 39 cities and towns into six county governments with full municipal powers.

There would be a Mayor of Kent County, Newport County, Washington County and Bristol County. Providence County, which extends from Cranston to Woonsocket, would be divided in two —Blackstone County to the north, and Providence County in the metropolitan area.

Why do we carve up America’s smallest state into 39 municipalities, 38 police departments, 36 school districts and roughly 50 fire and water districts? Does it make sense for a motorist to pass through 10 municipal jurisdictions on the 44-mile stretch of Route 95 in Rhode Island? The answer is emphatically no. At a time when the property tax burden in our state is one of the highest in the nation, we should look for every opportunity to remove duplication and promote efficiency.

Some might argue that we should not tamper with a system that has served Rhode Island for centuries. Until the 1950s, however, most of the state population was concentrated in a handful of cities and towns in the metropolitan area. It’s only in recent decades that suburban sprawl has spread us so thinly across the landscape. The resulting disunity is not only wasteful. It also makes it more difficult to build political consensus and get things done.

The current system is particularly hard on the capital city. Providence, with 18 square miles of land, is one of the smallest central cities in the country. Only Bridgeport in Connecticut and Wilmington in Delaware are smaller. Providence has had the same land area for a century. As a result, most suburban-style housing, stores and offices are located beyond its borders. Increasingly, the city economy is dominated by tax-exempt colleges, hospitals and governments. The tenement neighborhoods in most of the city are out of bounds for most middle-class residents.

Yes, Providence was dramatically successful in revitalizing its downtown. But cash-short Providence had to recruit the state and federal governments to pay for most of Capital Center, and the project has taken more than 30 years to complete. There is much more work to be done. Providence needs a much larger, growing tax base to launch additional renewal campaigns in the city.

Is this a power-grab by Providence? Not at all. The Providence County I envision would include Providence, East Providence, North Providence, Cranston, Johnston, Foster and Scituate — 36 percent of the state’s population at present, hardly enough to take over the state. (In 1950, these cities and towns accounted for 47 percent of the population.) Also, the new Providence County would be created by a “merger of equals,” rather than by an annexation of the other cities and towns by the capital city.

I know that unification is controversial, and politicians who advocate it could find their careers coming to an abrupt end. It is easier for me to speak out, now that I am no longer in office.

But change should be the watchword in Rhode Island, just as it is in Washington. The Northeast has been battered by competition from other countries and by the financial crisis. To restore our prosperity, Rhode Island must be nimble. We must improve our urban and suburban business centers to compete successfully for growing companies. We must rebuild and replace our highways, bridges, secondary roads and public-transit systems. And we must improve the natural environment so that we can attract educated and skilled workers from other states.

All of these things require a political system that can think long-term, build consensus, make timely decisions and take prompt action. The patchwork of state and local jurisdictions that has evolved in the last 60 years will not get the job done. In this, as in most things, united we stand.

Joseph R. Paolino Jr. was mayor of Providence from 1984 to 1991, director of the Rhode Island Department of Economic Development from 1991 to 1994, and is a major property owner in downtown Providence.