Recommendations from the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform:
-- Eliminate the state's 1,008 townships and transfer their responsibilities, primarily fire protection, poor relief and tax assessment, to county government
-- Advance a constitutional amendment to make every countywide office but prosecutor an appointed position, meaning elections for county assessor, auditor, clerk, coroner, recorder, sheriff, surveyor and treasurer would cease by 2012
-- Create an elected county executive position to replace three-member boards of county commissioners and to take responsibility for filling the eight county administrative jobs (above) the commission recommends become appointed posts
-- Require school districts with fewer than 2,000 students (roughly half of Indiana's nearly 300 districts) to consolidate
-- Establish a countywide body to oversee the delivery of police, fire and emergency medical services
-- Consolidate emergency dispatch centers at the county level
-- Shift trial court and child welfare costs to the state
-- Move municipal elections to even-numbered years, so they coincide with county, state and federal contests
-- Transfer city health departments to the county level
-- Reorganize library systems by county
-- Prohibit local government employees from serving as elected officials within the same unit of government
-- Designate a state office to provide local government with technical assistance for implementing the recommendations
INDIANAPOLIS | A star-studded panel appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels produced a 46-page "road map" for local government reform Tuesday that would steamroll thousands of elected offices.
Read the report
The Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, led by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard, recommends abolishing township government, ending elections for most county offices and consolidating dozens of small school districts.
In Lake County, that translates into the proposed elimination of 62 elected offices -- many of which would be replaced with professionally trained appointees chosen by an elected county executive. The plan also would grow county councils by as many as four elected officials each.
"We spent the last (five) months asking whether Indiana's patchwork of local government enterprises delivers the most effective service at the lowest possible expense, and the answer is no," Shepard said. "The status quo in Indiana local government simply isn't good enough."
The commission's recommendations -- 27 in all -- come as local officials brace for spending cuts that will be forced by state property-tax caps set to take full effect in 2010. These looming circuit breakers threaten to sap up to $748 million a year statewide, with local government coffers in Lake County in line to lose as much as $367 million.
"There is a very direct connection here to our ambition to dramatically lower property taxes in this state," Daniels said of the commission report. "Too much government pushes property taxes up. ... If you want to get property taxes down and keep them down, this commission has given us a terrific road map for doing that."
Consolidating power
The plan, most of which needs approval from the General Assembly, would focus unprecedented power in a new elected office of county executive. The position would send to the scrap heap the current elected three-member county boards of commissioners.
"You wouldn't run General Motors with three CEOs. You wouldn't run your local Dairy Queen with three CEOs," Kernan said. "One person having the responsibility makes sense from an administrative standpoint."
The commission also recommends a constitutional amendment that, by 2012, would cease elections for every countywide office but prosecutor, with the new county executive given the authority to appoint a professional assessor, auditor, clerk, coroner, recorder, sheriff, surveyor and treasurer.
Kernan said advocating appointed sheriffs was a tough call but one consistent with all other levels of law enforcement.
"You don't elect the chief of police," he said. "We don't elect the superintendent of the state police. We don't elect the head of the FBI."
Townships gone
The commission's outline for eliminating Indiana's 1,008 townships also would transfer more responsibilities, primarily fire protection, poor relief and tax assessment, to county government. At the same time, the panel suggests the state should pick up the tab for providing child welfare services and running local trial courts, a shift that could ease property taxes.
The plan also recommends a school reorganization effort that would eliminate districts with fewer than 2,000 students, which could mean consolidation for more than half of Indiana's nearly 300 school corporations.
"We acknowledge that, in the short run, what we're proposing will be disruptive, even painful," Shepard said of the full recommendations. "We think now is the time for change. It will only happen if the people of Indiana insist on it."
Places not on the map
The road map steers clear of the thorny issue of consolidating rural counties, opts against a constitutional convention to reopen the 1851 state charter and provides no sweeping reforms for cities and towns.
East Chicago, Gary and Hammond might need a little direction. Those municipalities would face the three worst revenue losses in the state -- $160 million combined in 2010 -- under the strict tax caps Daniels has proposed.
The only money-saving suggestions for cities are moving municipal elections to even-numbered years -- to coincide with county, state and federal contests -- and transferring city health departments to the county level. Hammond's ongoing effort to shed its health department has brought Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. untold grief in exchange for less than $1 million in annual taxpayer savings.
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