Within a matter of hours, Delaware County residents will have their chance at remaking local government from the top down.
Voters in Tuesday’s election will be able to cast ballots for or against a public referendum to reorganize city and county government. Longtime positions for Muncie’s mayor and city council as well as the Delaware County commissioners and county council would be combined into a 15-member body. Government services would have urban and rural service areas and tax districts.
But to actually effect that change, voters will have 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’s a justifiable threshold, argue officials who oppose 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.
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