With increasing frequency, Vanderburgh County residents living outside Evansville are asking, "What is in consolidation for us?" We read it on "Your Turn" at courierpress.com and in letters.
Most of them aren't talking about the broad promise — an improved atmosphere for economic development, focused leadership and reduced duplication, among other concepts.
No, they are talking about what the consolidation of the city and county governments would do directly to improve their personal situations.
To that, the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Reorganization Committee has two proposals on the table that should appeal to county-only residents.
First, according ot a story in the Courier & Press on Sunday, the committee may propose that residents outside the current city would pay the same sewer rate as residents in the city.
Now, county residents outside the city pay a 35 percent higher sewer rate than Evansville residents. The city did that on the argument that it costs most to pump sewage from the rural reaches of the county. But some committee members feel that is an inequity that could be adjusted under consolidation.
Ed Hafer Jr., chairman of the committee's finance and tax subcommittee, has promised more data on the fiscal impact of equalization.
The second proposal would keep separate city and county zoning codes as is, assuring county-only residents that more restrictive city zoning codes would not apply to their property. It is a peace offering to residents who farm and who are concerned that city zoning laws might restrict their livelihood. For example, city codes would prohibit livestock.
These strike us as two sensible proposals, ideas of substance that county-only residents could embrace.