EVANSVILLE— Fueled by large donations from business interests, the group leading the charge for Evansville-Vanderburgh County government consolidation raised three times as much money this year as did opponents.
Six-month campaign finance reports submitted to the county clerk Friday indicate that Yes! for Unification raised $301,868 from April 27 through Oct. 12, compared to $101,978 raised by Citizens Opposed to Reorganization in Evansville.
Yes! reported having $30,875 still on hand with no debt compared to $16,407 for CORE, also with no debt. But those numbers are just a snapshot as of the Oct. 12 end of the reporting period. Both groups hope to continue raising money through election day, when Vanderburgh County voters will decide the fate of a referendum on consolidation.
The Yes! campaign benefited from heavy business community support, led by $130,000 from the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana and $20,000 more from the Chamber's political action committee.
Friends of Mayor Winnecke, the political fund of Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, kicked in $10,000. Other big-dollar contributors include Evansville-based Koch Enterprises, Inc., Old National Bancorp and Vectren Corp., with $15,000 each. Bernardin, Lochmueller & Associates Inc., an Evansville-based engineering and environmental firm, gave $10,000.
Kathy Briscoe, chairwoman of the local Chamber's board of directors, said the organization's small and large business members believe the addition of more than 62,000 county-only residents to a new government's population base would enhance economic development prospects.
Prospective new businesses who look at the city's population of nearly 118,000 are not considering the entire 180,000-strong community of Vanderburgh County, Briscoe said.
"(Consolidation) gives us a broader appeal to more of those who are looking to establish their business. They want a community that can support their business," she said. "We're more of a community of 170,000 or 180,000 than we are a community of 115,000."
Noting that the Chamber's membership is composed primarily of small businesses, Briscoe said the organization has no plans to pump more money into the consolidation campaign, "but that can change."
The Chamber also supports consolidation through volunteer efforts of its members in the referendum campaign, Briscoe said.
CORE's campaign finance report indicates it raised its money in far smaller increments, although the Vanderburgh County Farm Bureau did kick in $15,200.
"There's a lot of people that gave us 20 bucks," CORE co-chairman Bruce Ungethiem said.
Ungethiem said Chamber of Commerce leaders almost certainly know that economic development will not follow as a result of consolidation, given that — he said — it hasn't materialized in other communities that consolidated governments. The argument that consolidation has not helped generate economic development in other communities is vigorously contested by consolidation supporters.
The Chamber's real goal, Ungethiem said, likely is to help perpetuate a new government it could claim to have significantly funded.
"There are less people they have to influence to get what they want," he said.
Yes! has run a campaign that includes television advertising, but Ungethiem said CORE may be up with a TV ad of its own soon.
"I think you're going to see something here probably in another week," he said.