Current economic realities make it even more compelling to overcome the political resistance against making needed changes regarding how communities deliver local government services in the most efficient way. Today’s Indianapolis Star editorial discusses some encouraging leadership around Indiana countered by, in the Statehouse, the reality of partisan politics. Please take a moment to call, write or e-mail your legislators and let them know that you want them to support meaningful efficiency and change with township government during this session.

Find your elected officials here.

Over the past couple of weeks, the Evansville Courier Press has run several articles on township government. Last weekend, they reported on the Boon Township Trustee in Warrick County who allegedly stole almost $70,000 from township funds (or the taxpayers) over the past two years. If they claim that township government is closest to the people, then familiarity breeds contempt.

Here is an earlier in-depth article on townships.

And here is an editorial.

The services townships provide can easily be more efficiently and effectively offered at the county level.

Last week, Chamber colleague Derek Redelman and I toured the impressive new Honda plant in Greensburg. We were joined by former Michigan governor and current National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler. The year-old, 1.3-million-square-foot facility is a state-of-the-art marvel of what manufacturing has evolved into with quality, efficiency, continuous improvement and worker satisfaction as key goals. The plant produces just under 400 Civics a day, including natural gas powered versions.

We were able to meet with Engler and Honda executives after the tour to discuss several topics. Engler said that Indiana has weathered the economic downturn better than many states and is well-poised to benefit from future manufacturing growth. The market for cars used to be 16 million to 17 million annually; industry leaders are hoping for 10 million this year.

Engler said that nationally there is a workforce skills shortage in many areas. Honda VP Rich Schostek said the company is happy with its workers in Indiana – more than 30,000 applied for 1,000 positions. Honda looks for good reading and math skills, as well as the ability to work in teams and communicate well. These are key abilities the Chamber has been advocating for to elevate the skills of Indiana’s workforce.

It was nice to get the perspective of a national manufacturing leader, as well as see one of Indiana’s more recent success stories.

When things get lean, it is even more important to use limited resources as wisely as possible. And so it goes with local government.

This is the first year that each of the 92 county councils in Indiana are doing a non-binding review of the 2010 budgets of all civil units of government (including townships) within that county. The goal is to get a better handle on other budgets within the county by a single fiscal body and how the tax caps will affect these budgets. This kind of review is important, especially with the impact of property tax caps on local budgets. However, with the review being non-binding, the county councils can only make recommendations, not decisions. 

To add context about township government expenditures and activities to those budget discussions, analysis was done from the 2008 financial reports that township trustees are legally required to file with the Indiana State Board of Accounts. That analysis was done for townships in 29 Indiana counties and summarized for each county.

The information from these reports shows incredible variances in standards and expenditures. For example, average poor relief per person ranges from $56 to $826 from one township to another in the same county. In another county, administrative costs to deliver $1 in direct services (both poor relief and public safety) ranged from 30 cents in one township to $12.20 in another.

It was hoped that as the county councils and the public saw the great differentials among expenditures, taxes and services by township, there will be a realization that more consistency is needed. We need discussions about how to provide more consistent services to the poor - not just among townships, though that is very important, but also in cooperation with all other human services agencies in the county.  We need like discussions in regard to fire and emergency services. 

Many county councils expressed frustration that the only power they had was to make a non-binding recommendation and thought it was a waste of time. Other county councils didn’t spend much time on it and simply rubber-stamped the township budgets. Because of property tax caps, local governments will have more than $400 million less to spend this year.  While the county budget officials do not have the authority to prioritize among taxing units, we hope their recent deliberations will inform the public and legislators of the need to simplify local government.

In a real victory for reforming Indiana’s township government, the Indiana Chamber and allies worked vigorously to improve SB 512 and successfully passed that revised version. As introduced, SB 512 eliminated townships (which is preferred), but to get the bill passed from the Senate Local Government Committee it was greatly watered down.

The day before the final vote before the full Senate, two favorable amendments were added and one bad amendment was defeated. As the amended bill was up for the final vote, the prospects for victory were not good. During the past few weeks, many township officials and their lobbyists (paid for with taxpayers’ dollars) were at the Statehouse in force to apply pressure on their legislators to oppose the bill. With the Daniels’ administration’s team and members of the Chamber-led coalition, we successfully swayed at least five votes to get to the final tally of 28-22 to pass the bill. 

The Chamber wishes to thank Sen. Lawson for her hard work and leadership on getting this bill passed. Senator David Long (R-Fort Wayne) provided leadership of the Republican caucus, where all of the supporting votes came from. We know there are several Democrat senators who would have supported this bill, but were unfortunately not permitted to vote that way.

Indiana Chamber board members and other citizens who contacted legislators to help swing several crucial votes played a critical role in the outcome. Senate Bill 512 is one of the keystone local government efficiency bills from the Kernan-Shepard Commission recommendations. We will work diligently to keep it moving in the House and bring it to a successful conclusion at the end of the session. 

Indiana Chamber-supported SB 506 (County Government Reorganization - Sen. Phil Boots) passed the Senate Local Government Committee 6-5 after being amended. It will now head to the Senate floor.

Those voting with the Chamber in support were: Phil Boots (R-Crawfordsville), Beverly Gard (R-Greenfield), Travis Holdman (R-Markle), Connie Lawson (R-Danville), Sue Landske (R-Cedar Lake) and Lonnie Randolph (D-East Chicago).

Those against were: Jean Breaux (D-Indianapolis), Jim Buck (R-Kokomo), Tim Lanane (D-Anderson), Mike Young (R-Indianapolis) and Richard Young (D-Milltown).

This bill reorganizes structure of county government to one of two models - either a single county executive (instead of three commissioners) with the legislative duties transferred to the county council or having a combined county commission that would have a county manager to carry out the county executive duties. It also makes changes to locally originated reorganization procedures and creates the Office of Local Government Technical Assistance.

This will be the first Kernan-Shepard bill to go to the Senate floor, after a long and difficult committee hearing. The bill was changed with two added amendments. The first one stripped the original bill and added an additional county government model that resembles a town board and a mechanism for local choice to be made. It allows a two-week period for the current county commissioners to make one of three choices: 1) select the Kernan-Shepard model of county government with a single county executive and transfer legislative duties to the county council, 2) opt for a more rural county model with a five-person council that hires a county manager or 3) simply do nothing.  If the county commissioners do nothing, it triggers a voter referendum for them to make the choice between the two options. The second amendment exempted Lake County from the bill.

The Indiana Chamber organized supporting testimony and appreciates the many people from around the state who came to testify in support of various aspects of the bill. This will be very contentious in the full Senate, with many anticipated amendments to change its applicability. Moreover, many legislators feel that "their" county government is just fine and don’t see the need to change.

Call your Senator NOW at (800) 382-9467 to let them know you support SB 506 in its current form. The bill is scheduled for a second reading on the Senate floor today.

Some legislators have announced their intentions of taking the road of less resistance to achieving local government reform by punting it to the voters for county-by-county referendums.

The Indiana Chamber strongly opposes such actions as it is fully within the authority of the Legislature to make all of the recommendations by the Kernan-Shepard Commission (except for the one concerning the constitutionally required election of certain county officials).

Why do legislators single out local government structural issues to go to a referendum? Primarily because it provides cover for their friends in local government at home and tends to make it less controversial. There are many reasons why there shouldn’t be voter referendums for the local government reform legislation.  For one, a county-by-county referendum would result in a hodgepodge of governmental structures, making things worse than they are now. Our voters elect legislators to represent them in the General Assembly and deliberate on hard issues and make tough decisions, not to pass the buck. Local government tends to be invisible to many citizens. To educate them on the nuances of Indiana’s complicated system of local government is a massive and costly process that can and should be avoided. The Chamber will be working with its allies to ensure referendums related to local government do not pass.

In Gov. Daniels’ recent State of the State address, he said, "The largest and most momentous of our opportunities lies in the area of governmental reform. The cost in dollars, confusion and just plain bad government of our 150-year-old system is by now completely beyond dispute. … The hour for action has arrived."

We encourage you to visit MySmartgov.org to learn more about the issues and what you can do. You can also locate and contact your legislators here.

* This is an excerpt from our weekly Legislative Report. Indiana Chamber members receive the full report each Friday during the General Assembly session.