Evansville Courier & Press
The Shepard/Kernan commission recommendations for streamlining local government are invaluable to Hoosier taxpayers in their confirmation that our antiquated system is overblown, costly and terribly in need of modernization.
What most people didn't need to be told is that local government in Indiana could use a strong infusion of business sense. Successful businesses learned long ago that they will have a better chance of surviving if they go small, cutting away unneeded offices and departments.
That is exactly what local government needs, and it is exactly what the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, headed by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Chief Justice Randall Shepard, is recommending in the report released this past week.
Kernan and Shepard, a former Evansville resident, said their proposals would streamline government in Indiana, make it less costly and make it easier for voters to know exactly who is responsible for local decisions.
"All of this is more expensive than it needs to be," Shepard said, according to The Associated Press.
Specifically, some of their more high-profile recommendations would replace the three county commissioners with one elected county executive; make most county offices, including sheriff and treasurer, appointed posts; give the county council legislative duties; create a countywide body to oversee public safety services; transfer all township functions to county government; and require any school district with fewer than 2,000 students to consolidate.
There are more, points out Indianapolis-based Courier & Press staff writer Bryan Corbin, and among them is the recommendation that public employees be prohibited from serving as elected officials in the same governmental unit. That could end up an issue in Evansville, which has had police and firefighters serving on the City Council.
If all the recommendations were carried out statewide, it would reduce the number of local government entities statewide by 37 percent and cut the number of elected officials - now at 10,746 - in half, reports Courier & Press staff writer Jimmy Nesbitt.
Township government has taken it on the chin this year from various reform efforts, and for good cause. Township government served a vital purpose 100 years ago when it took a long buggy ride to reach the county seat. The township official was closer at hand to deal with the immediate concerns of residents.
That's no longer true. With modern transportation and communications, the seat of county and city government is only minutes away. And yet we continue with multiple township assessors and trustees in each county
The recommendations, should they be approved, would create a unique situation for Evansville and Vanderburgh County. Evansville has a mayor, a City Council and numerous appointed department heads. A county government as envisioned by Shepard/Kernan would create a near mirror image of city governments. There is already too much duplication between the two; indeed, there is already a strong case to be made for consolidating the two into a single government with one executive and one council.
If this all passes the state, that would be the time for proponents to push ahead with countywide consolidation. After all, if the true purpose is to streamline local government, then in Evansville and Vanderburgh County that should mean ending the duplication between city and county.
Of course, the only way the Shepard/Kernan recommendations will have a prayer of passing is if taxpayers insist that their elected officials and representatives do it.
Without a public push - much like the one that forced the governor and Legislature to look at property tax reform this year - it will not happen.
The great majority of elected government officials in Indiana are not going to do anything that would result in the elimination of their office or the offices held by other members of their political party.
That is a key reason why consolidation in Evansville and Vanderburgh County has failed to take flight. Most of our elected officials would not lift a finger to risk the possibility of losing political power.
That all said, we believe it would doom the Shepard/Kernan recommendations if they were put before lawmakers during the coming 2008 session of the Legislature.
Of course, the elimination or consolidation of township assessors may get consideration in the 2008 session as part of the property tax reform movement which promises to take up all of the Legislature's time beginning in January.
Groups have been calling for the reform of Indiana government since the 1930s. They can wait one more year before attempting to push, pull and drag Indiana government into the 21st century.