Joint government appealing

Hooray for Dorothy Carter and her gem in Saturday’s paper (“Consolidation deserves a look,” letters, Jan. 10).

Memories are undoubtedly short on subjects like this, but some 25 years ago Spokane citizens missed a singular opportunity to take a major step into the future when they voted down the city-county consolidation proposal. The Spokane metropolitan area has been in pretty much of a downhill slide ever since – county and city incomes have not matched the rapidly increasing cost of government, services by both governmental entities have continued to decline and the waste of area resources stemming from the duplication and overlapping involved in these two competing governmental bureaucracies has marched on unabated. The incorporation of the city of Spokane Valley has only served to exacerbate the situation.

Integrated planning and management of the assets and services of the Spokane metropolitan area as a single, homogeneous entity is an eminently desirable goal under any circumstances, but with the economic stresses which presently confront these governments and the citizens whom they serve, it has now become an absolute necessity.

Alan Edmunds

Former director, Spokane Area Development Council, Spokane