Are we tardy in unifying our Evansville City and Vanderburgh County governments? Many nearby cities, such as Nashville, Indianapolis and Lexington, have long ago succeeded in unifying these duplicative units of government. Is it time we do likewise?
The question before us as we consider the Nov. 6 referendum about reorganizing our local government is why vote "Yes,", or why vote "No." Those who remonstrate against this referendum's reform and encourage us to vote "No" have persistently argued that more units of government offer greater checks and balances. They contend more government is better. As one who has represented both remonstrators and petitioners for decades before these governmental units, I must say unequivocally — it is mostly detrimental having more local government units. Little good is derived from these added units layered on top of our already burdensome and growing state and federal bureaucracies. Having both a Mayor and three County Commissioners, who are many times at odds on key policies and initiatives, no longer makes sense for one of Indiana's smallest geographic counties. The outdated separation of our City and County governments often unnecessarily divides us and leads to more expensive conflicts and duplication, rather than beneficial checks and balances.
Remonstrators to the passage of this referendum's unifying reforms contend that it is fair to tax city residents for sheriff's patrols that do not serve the majority of our Vanderburgh County residents' homes. Those same remonstrationers, who mostly live outside the city limits, then ironically argue it is fair that they not be taxed for the police patrols that benefit them while working and shopping daily in the city limits. Law enforcement is our local governments' largest budgetary line item. Why should city residents (who incidentally represent 2/3 of Vanderburgh County's population) pay for both police and sheriff patrols, while the other Vanderburgh County residents living outside the city limits pay for just one. Could this really be the selfish motivation for why some would ask that you vote "No"?
The Reorganization plan that is before us has been thoroughly vetted and adopted by a diverse volunteer citizen committee that included rural and urban residents. This plan was then legislatively revised and affirmed by both our City and County elected governments. This Reorganization plan was heavily debated and as adopted contains numerous compromises to accommodate both the concerns for the rural and urban residents. This plan puts in place a more representative structure of local government, in contrast to our current system, which continually divides us. While uniting us, this plan provides for a more nimble local governmental structure. This structure will allow us to more effectively compete with others in our swiftly changing global economy.
Over the last 30 years we have extensively studied local government reform. Our leaders have visited with officials and taxpayers in Nashville, Lexington and Louisville. Never has it been found in those studies that a referendum has been organized to repeal their unifications once passed. Our own single unified Vanderburgh County school system has likewise served us well for decades. Never has an effort ever been truly advanced for repealing this unification. If local government unification were so bad, then why have all of those efforts withstood the test of time? Like other cities and our very own school system, now is the time that we too accomplish a similar unification of our local government's administrative, fiscal and legislative affairs.
To vote "No" will result in furthering the harsh process of random annexations on our rural subdivisions. To vote "No" denies our rural residents a right to vote for our mayor. To vote "No" is to artificially see Evansville as a smaller place in the important census and atlas listings relied upon by economic development prospects. To vote "No" is to say we are looking backward and not forward. If you are instead forward looking, if you see annexation as an unjust, divisive and costly means to growth, if you want all county residents to vote for our mayor, and if you want a community that better competes statistically in the world economy, then vote "Yes."
