Governor vows to light the torch for local government reform

Clark County

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January 21, 2011

BY MAUREEN HAYDEN CNHI The News and Tribune Fri Jan 21, 2011, 12:11 AM EST

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has issued a kind of call to action on local government reform, asking citizens to lobby their legislators to eliminate township government.

At a forum on township reform, hosted by the Indiana Historical Society, Daniels invoked a famous quote about the power of an idea whose time has come. He used it to condemn the inaction of state lawmakers on one of his longtime priorities: Eliminating what he calls an antiquate, obsolete, and costly form of government rooted in the 19th century.

“This is an idea whose time had come 100 years ago,” Daniels said.

He delivered that message to a receptive crowd of people who attended a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Central Indiana Corporate Partnership.

Daniels told his audience they needed to launch a vigorous campaign for an issue that doesn’t have much sex appeal.

He said he’ll be delivering that message outside of the state’s capital city in coming weeks to convince voters from around the state to pressure their lawmakers to act.

“This is not one of those issues that gets people to start torch-light parades,” Daniels said. “We'll have to light a few torches ourselves.”

A bipartisan panel of speakers echoed his message. Former Indiana State Sen. Louis Mahern, who described himself as a “liberal Democrat” said state legislators are better talking about reform than they are acting on it.

Mahern cited the legislature’s move to cap property taxes that fund local government, but its refusal to eliminate a layer of government he said is inefficient and redundant.

“We have to do this, we have to reform this, in order to re-allocate the money,” Mahern said.

For four years in a row, Daniels has pushed the Indiana General Assembly to do away with the state’s 1,000-plus township governments and re-assign their duties, including poor relief and fire protection to county government.

The legislature has greeted his request with tepid interest. Lawmakers on both sides of the partisan aisle have defended township government, saying Hoosiers like their government best when its local.

In 2006, the legislature passed the Government Modernization Act. It provided a framework for townships to merge with their local governments on a voluntary basis. But only one community, Zionsville, has actually put the bill into action.

Recent revelations about how the township level of government is working may change that. At the forum Wednesday, Daniels cited an effort by a group of 15 Indiana newspapers that have organized an editorial push for township reform.

On Sunday, two of those newspapers, The Indianapolis Star and The Herald-Times of Bloomington, reported that Indiana's township governments have been sitting on stockpiles of taxpayer money while offering less help to the poor.

The newspapers also found high administrative costs, of up to more than $4 for every $1 spent on emergency poor relief; and found that more than 133 township trustees had failed to comply with a new state law requiring them to file their annual reports electronically with the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

Failure to file the reports is punishable by removal from office, but the state Board of Accounts lacks enforcement power, forum speakers said.

Maureen Hayden is statehouse bureau chief for CNHI's Indiana newspapers. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.