Anyone who lives in Colorado Springs can tell you there’s a long-standing grudge match between the city’s two papers—the Gazette, a daily, and the Independent, a weekly. I can attest, as a former reporter for the Independent who has witnessed what happens from the inside when the two clash. So when I read that the papers would be collaborating on editorials, I had to reboot my computer to make sure it was working right. After all, the “G” tilts heavily to the political right, while the “Indy” is unapologetically left.

But today those differences were set aside, as the two papers (here and here) join to convince readers to leave behind their ideologies and vote for a property-tax measure and against an initiative by former state lawmaker Douglas Bruce. The joint editorial states, “We do not take the action of combining our editorial voices lightly. We have chosen this path due to the dire financial situation the city faces.”

“We undertook this unprecedented action because we both reached the same conclusion,” Gazette publisher Steven K. Pope says (via the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies).

Independent publisher John Weiss adds, “We have set aside our differences to graphically illustrate how important it is for citizens to vote this fall to ensure the short- and long-term health of the city we call home.”