From the Muncie Star-Press:
Delaware County voters turned a big thumbs down Tuesday on the idea of local government consolidation.
On a public referendum on consolidating some elements of city and county government, voters on Tuesday voted 62 to 38 percent against the reorganization referendum.
...
Under the terms of the referendum, Muncie’s mayor and city council as well as the Delaware County commissioners and county council would have been combined into a 15-member body. Government services would have been split into urban and rural service areas and tax districts.
But to actually effect that change, voters had to turn out in numbers and overwhelmingly support that referendum. That’s because when local officials — many of whom oppose reorganization — approved the referendum in June 2011, they established a requirement that two-thirds of voters, rather than a simple majority, must vote for it.
It was a justifiable threshold, argued officials who opposed reorganization, because of the dramatic changes the measure would have on government as we know it. But the measure’s proponents have said that officials approved the two-thirds majority in order to make it nearly impossible for it to pass.
On Tuesday, signs urging voters to vote no on the reorganization dotted the yards outside polling places around the county and a handful of local political figures talked for and against the measure to voters.
The proponents have worked on a shoestring budget compared to the anti-reorganization effort.
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311070021
