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Last updated: September 8, 2008 5:00 a.m.

Fighting for change

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Recommendations
Some of the 27 recommendations of the Kernan-Shepard report include:

•Establish a single-person elected county chief executive.

•Establish a single legislative body for county government.

•Transfer the duties of the county auditor, treasurer, recorder, assessor, surveyor, sheriff and coroner to the county executive.

•Create a countywide body to oversee the provision of all public safety services.

•Consolidate emergency public safety dispatch by county or multicounty region.

•Transfer the responsibility for all funding of the state’s trial court system to the state.

•Transfer the responsibility for administering the duties of township government to the county executive.

•Reorganize school districts to achieve a minimum student population of 2,000.

•Conduct all non-partisan school elections during November in even years.

•Allow the City Council to appoint the city clerk in larger cities.

A momentous report from a panel of government and policy all-stars recommending dramatic changes in Indiana local government was sidelined last December when it hit an immovable object: property taxes.

Overhauling the state’s property tax system overshadowed the 2008 General Assembly, leaving no time for a second major issue. But the report remains worthy of serious consideration, and a formidable group of advocates has coalesced to revive interest in the recommendations. The new organization has promise to counter the certain opposition from elected officials whose jobs would be eliminated or drastically changed if the legislature adopts various elements of the report.

MySmartGov.org will advocate for changes recommended by the study commission that former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard led. The commission also included John Stafford, director of the Community Research Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, and retired Lincoln National Corp. Chairman Ian Rolland. MySmartGov.org expects to have a budget of up to $500,000 for information and lobbying.

Just as the commission’s report was bipartisan, MySmartGov.org represents views across the political spectrum. It includes the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, which often identifies more with the Republican Party, and its director is Marilyn Schultz, a capable former state budget director and Democratic state representative.

For fair debate to occur, a strong group advocating for the commission’s report is necessary because opposition will be strong. Already the powerful Indiana Association of Counties opposes some of the recommendations. Considering Indiana’s townships have more than 4,000 elected officials, the proposal to abolish townships will meet with widespread disapproval.

Not all of the commission’s recommendations are unquestionably the best move. Appointing rather than electing county sheriffs, for example, has a number of disadvantages as well as advantages. Forcing school districts with fewer than 2,000 students to consolidate with another district is not necessarily the best way to deliver education in some rural parts of the state.

But recommended changes are long past due. Allowing the county commissioners to serve as both the executive and legislative branches of county government gives them inordinate power. Replacing the commissioners with an elected county executive – a county “mayor” – makes much sense, as does eliminating township government.

The Kernan-Shepard report should not be placed on the shelf because property taxes were considered more important in this year’s legislative session. MySmartGov.org will help ensure the recommendations are at least considered in 2009.