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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana township government would slim down under a bill passed narrowly by the Indiana Senate on Tuesday.
The 28-22 vote keeps alive an effort by Gov. Mitch Daniels and supporters to eliminate township government all together. Several other government restructuring bills have also passed in various forms.
Daniels congratulated Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne , and the Senate, “for a strong and courageous performance in reforming local government and protecting taxpayers. We’ve seen breakthroughs on townships, county government, libraries and elections, all of which will reduce confusion, waste, nepotism and conflicts of interest all across our state.”
The township legislation – Senate Bill 512 – now goes to the House, where similar efforts have failed in the past. Democrat House Speaker Pat Bauer has said the chamber should be focusing on Indiana’s fiscal and job crisis.
Highlights of the legislation include:
•Abolishes more than 1,000 township advisory boards and their 3,000 elected members starting in 2013.
•Transfers the legislative and fiscal duties of a township to the county council. Ironically, the county council isn’t even the legislative body for the county.
•Exempts Marion County and any other township currently undergoing a structural reorganization.
•Retains the township trustee.
•Prohibits trustees from hiring relatives starting in 2011.
“I think it’s a vote looking out for taxpayers,” said Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville – the author of the bill.
She said that 64 percent of township board members run unopposed and only 35 percent of voters went far enough down the ballot to vote for the seats.
Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, delivered an impassioned defense for township government. He is a former two-term township trustee, and two sons have also served as township trustee.
He said Indiana has been labeled as a “big government” state by the governor but townships only account for 3 percent of all property tax dollars collected statewide.
And he said overall spending should be the true measure, adding that Indiana’s per capita tax rate is below the national average.
Kruse said county councils will be deluged with work. For instance, the Allen County Council will have to approve 20 budgets and 20 fire contracts and review annual reports from 20 townships.
“We are giving big government the power and diminishing local government power,” he said. “I think we ought to quit picking on the little township government. This is one little step toward the demise of the republic form of government.”
Kruse was the only area senator to oppose the bill.
