Local residents to vote on consolidation plan

By RACHEL HOGAN
Collegian Staff Writer

As local elections approach, there is one campaign not making any promises.

On May 16, residents will have the opportunity to vote on whether the Borough of State College, Patton Township and College Township should consolidate to form one municipality.

But if the vote passes, residents will still have to guard their pockets because the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County and the Pennsylvania Economy League cannot guarantee the 5 to 10 percent savings they have predicted.

"There is no right answer to this," Economy League Regional Manager Ann Stacey said yesterday after a slide show presentation at the Technology Center of Research Park. "The Economy League and the task force or the government can not say for sure what the figures will be."

The new consolidated City of State College would take effect on the first Monday of January 1998 and would serve more than 57,000 people. But 30,000 of those people are students, said Thomas Songer, chairman for the Regional Government Study Task Force.

With that in mind, it does not make sense to have four governing bodies -- College Township Council, Patton Township Board of Supervisors, State College Borough Council and the Council of Governments -- or for each municipality to have its own police station, Songer said.

Consolidation would eliminate this governmental and public service baggage, Stacey said, and could reduce costs. But she stressed the newly-released savings estimates are conservative in an effort to be honest to the residents.

"We closed no buildings, we sold no properties, we sold no police cars, we changed no guns," Stacey said. The Economy League and the task force have no say in how the government will ultimately be run, she said.

She said if some buildings were closed, the revenue could be impressive. The city would gain not only the immediate revenue of the sale, but would also benefit from reduced costs in maintenance, such as janitorial and electrical costs and insurance savings.

But President of the Holmes-Foster Neighborhood Association Anita Genger said she wonders how much money there really is to be saved.

"There isn't a lot of extra fat in the budget," she said. Genger is trying to set up a meeting so that proponents and opponents of consolidation can discuss the issue together, but she is not having much success.

"You hear one side one week, and then two weeks later you hear the other side. And it doesn't do too much good," Genger said.

But instead of trying to get a divisive view, Stacey said she wants residents to view the vote on May 16 as a marriage proposal. The three-year transition period between the 1995 ballot and the 1998 enaction would then be the engagement period.

"Whose toaster works better?" she said. The one that works better will be kept for the marriage.

And so it will be with government policies, taxation and public services, she said.

The slide show will be presented for public viewing in all three municipalities as part of the campaign.