WORLD-HERALD EXCLUSIVE
LINCOLN — State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, voicing frustration over rising taxes and government inefficiencies, plans to dust off an old idea: merging city and county governments in Douglas County.
Ashford, whose legislation has helped spawn the development of the Qwest Center Omaha, said he's drafting a bill that would require a countywide vote on a merger within three years.
He said Wednesday that it's redundant to have both a City Council and a County Board in Douglas County and that the “status quo” of rising expenses and unsustainable pension costs must change.
“The economic situation is such that we have to do something differently,” Ashford said, drawing an analogy between now and the 1930s, when Nebraska went to a unicameral Legislature to cut costs.
“It's time to wipe the slate clean and find a new way of governance,” said Ashford, the senior member of the Omaha delegation.
Although city-county mergers are not common nationally, there are notable exceptions. Louisville, Ky., merged with Jefferson County in 2003. Indianapolis, Nashville, Tenn., and Lexington, Ky., also have merged city-county governments.
Merger is not a new idea locally, but it's never gotten across the starting line.
In 1997, then-Mayor Hal Daub unsuccessfully pushed for a merger.
In 1998, Nebraska voters passed a constitutional amendment allowing for mergers of cities and counties. Lawmakers later passed a tough requirement to approve such mergers: that voters not only within the affected cities must approve mergers, but also, in a separate vote, the county's voters who live outside such cities or housing subdivisions.
In 2005, a local proposal to create a 14-member “megaboard” composed of City Council and County Board members was killed.
In 2007, then-Mayor Mike Fahey testified in support of a legislative bill to merge Omaha and Douglas County governments, but the bill eventually died.
Ashford said today's economic climate, plus the clamor for spending cuts and opposition to tax increases in Omaha, makes the time ripe to reconsider a merger.
“I think we're at the tipping point of public concern. Now the public is demanding change, big change,” he said.
Four other state senators interviewed generally agreed it is time to revisit the merger idea but said they'd have to be shown that efficiencies would result.
“I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon just because someone wants a merger. I want to see what the benefits will be,” said Sen. Brenda Council, a former Omaha City Council member.
Past studies, she said, haven't shown clear cost savings.
Sens. Steve Lathrop, Scott Lautenbaugh and John Nelson voiced similar views.
“With the problems going on in City Hall, it makes a lot of sense to look at merging some functions,” said Lathrop.
Ashford said it was “just common sense” that a single governing board for the county would lead to more efficiency and less redundancy.
Obstacles to merger would have to be removed, he said, citing the requirement that gives rural voters what amounts to veto power over any merger idea.
The issues confronting rural residents and residents of smaller towns such as Valley and Waterloo must be considered, he said, but added it didn't make sense to give a small number of rural voters the power to dictate whether a merger goes forward.
The Legislature might need to provide incentives to encourage a merger, he added, such as the power to levy a higher sales tax, an authority that Mayor Jim Suttle has sought.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
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