SOUTH BEND — It's a situation that sometimes creates confusion. Thousands of local residents have a South Bend mailing address but they don't live within the city limits.

Walt Breske from South Bend wants to know why he doesn't get the discount rate at city golf courses when he has a South Bend mailing address.

WSBT's Kirk Mason has the answer.

A golf course may seem like a long way from a voting booth. But in South Bend the two things have something in common.

Last November — the day after city elections — we introduced you to D.J. West. West was upset she wasn't allowed to vote in the South Bend mayor's race. West had a South Bend mailing address but didn't live within the city limits.

“I just got madder and madder," West told WSBT News in November. "‘I wouldn't have moved over there if I had know I couldn't vote."

Similar circumstances apply to city owned golf courses Elbel and Erskine.

"I know a lot of folks think because they have South Bend on their driver's license that they're automatically going to be determined as South Bend city residents, but we have to look at the license. If the license has a five digit address, that tells us that's a county address,” explained Phil St. Clair from South Bend Parks and Recreation.

If you own a business or property in South Bend and can show proof you are also eligible for the discount.

"The thinking for a long time has been that non residents don't pay city taxes for the city park facilities that we have; and the city taxpayers do pay," St. Clair said.

But St. Clair says the $4 discounts now offered to golfers in South Bend could be eliminated in the future anyway. That's as the city looks to increase revenue with the loss of property tax dollars under Indiana's circuit breaker law.

St. Clair says city golf courses raise about $1.8 million for South Bend each year.

Ironically Elbel Golf Course actually has a county address, but the city owns it.