By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press
The new push for Evansville-Vanderburgh County government consolidation comes in a political climate perhaps more hospitable to the idea than in years past.
With Gov. Mitch Daniels still strongly supporting proposals to overhaul local government, the elimination of township assessors last year and the appearance this year of an active and largely anti-government local political movement, much has changed since the VandiGov referendum on consolidation was defeated by a 3-1 margin in 1974.
A day after the League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana announced it has launched a petition drive aimed at getting a referendum on consolidation on the 2010 ballot, Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel made it clear he will not try to block the effort.
"I think the time is coming in this community where we do need to take a good hard look at what consolidation might offer, especially with the property tax caps (passed last year) and the fact that, with our annexations, with the growth in our community, it's becoming more and more urban," Weinzapfel said.
"I support the process moving forward."
Weinzapfel said January's decision to have local governments buy supplies jointly with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. is a prime example of the movement toward streamlined government.
Largely because of that decision, the mayor said, the City County Purchasing Department eliminated two positions and submitted a 2010 budget request of $139,136 -- 46 percent less than 2009.
"It's moving beyond simply just city and county to include other units like to school corporation when it's practical and feasible," he said.
The League of Women Voters will attempt to collect, by Oct. 15, the required signatures of at least 5 percent of Vanderburgh County voters who cast ballots in the most recent secretary of state's race. The number of signatures needed is pegged at more than 2,600.
If the petition drive is successful, the City Council and the County Commissioners will have to hold public hearings and vote on whether to continue.
It is unclear whether a consolidation campaign would tap into local constituencies roused to anger this year by the construction of a Downtown arena, the since-reversed decision not to renew Vanderburgh County's local homestead credit, annexation and President Barack Obama's spending plans.
Those residents and others energized by property taxes and assessments in 2007 and 2008 could form a potentially potent base of support.
Jim Bratten, a spokesman for United Freedom Makers, said members of the conservative group are of two minds on local government consolidation.
"It has some points that would be beneficial, like streamlining government, or do you want to do make one organization (local government) bigger, that's one of the cons," Bratten said. "It depends on how they do it.
"We'd like to see it on a referendum so people can have a public debate on it."
State Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, who says many of her constituents in nonincorporated Vanderburgh County oppose consolidation, believes the energy for it has waned.
"We gave (advocates) a legislative mechanism for it in 2006, and no one has done anything with it," Becker said. "We've already consolidated a lot of our local government in Vanderburgh County, and that may be why there hasn't been a big push for it in either 2006 or since then."
Daniels' continued advocacy of proposals to overhaul local government initially offered by the Kernan-Shepard Commission also may have sapped the urgency felt by consolidation advocates, Becker said.
Daniels and other proponents have vowed to bring the defeated Kernan-Shepard proposals back next year, since lawmakers won't have to pass a budget and can spend time on other issues.
County Councilman Joe Kiefer, who kicked off the 2006 drive for consolidation by pushing for formation of the original study committee three years earlier, said advocates have lost none of their enthusiasm.
"We presented stuff to the governor's office (after the 2006 legislation), and they said they were planning to do what ultimately became the Kernan-Shepard report," Kiefer said. "Everybody said, 'Let's just put this thing on hold and see what that produces.' That's why we paused or stepped back on this."
Kiefer said he's happy consolidation is back in the spotlight, but there's unfinished business.
"The metro mayor and metro council, that's what I support," he said. "That's what's best for economic development, best for efficient government, best for representative government."