PROVIDENCE – A permanent joint commission will examine the possibility of municipalities and school districts further sharing services.

According to a news release, the Joint Commission on Shared Municipal Services will make recommendations to the General Assembly on legislation that could help cities and towns cut the costs involved in providing municipal services by sharing them.

The permanent panel was a recommendation of a special commission that studied the sharing of services among Rhode Island municipalities.

The release said the earlier special commission recommended that the new commission begin its work by initially addressing four areas for potential sharing: information technology, public safety dispatch, tax assessment and tax collections, with a goal of a 20 percent savings in five years in those areas of government through shared services.

No date has been set for the commission’s first meeting. •