By Bryan Corbin, Evansville Courier & Press
INDIANAPOLIS - Three of the Kernan-Shepard local government bills advocated by Gov. Mitch Daniels have experienced major setbacks today.
One proposal was outright defeated, another appears dead for the session and a third was substantially watered down.
Here are the details:
-Senate Joint Resolution 7 would have amended the state constitution so that four county elected offices - county coroner, surveyor, treasurer and recorder - would instead be appointees. It was defeated in the Senate Local Government committee late this afternoon.
-Senate Bill 512 would have eliminated township trustees and other township officials and transferred their duties to the county level. The same committee gutted that bill, taking out most of the wording. Only two provisions remain: nepotism would not be allowed in township government, and township budgets will get a non-binding review by the county council. That scaled-back version of the bill passed the Senate Local Government Committee, 9-2.
-Senate Bill 521 was the Kernan-Shepard proposal to require the smallest school districts, those of 1,000 or less, to consolidate their administrative offices over a period of three years. The Senate Education Committee debated it at length this afternoon. In light of opposition, however, chairwoman Sen. Teresa Lubbers, R-Indianapolis, announced she would not take a vote on the bill.
Since Thursday is the deadline for Senate bills to pass out of committee to the full Senate, bill author Sen. Gary Dillon said that means as a practical matter his school-consolidation bill is likely dead for the session. No further meetings of the Senate Education Committee are scheduled this week.
Daniels has advocated 20 of the 27 recommendations of the Kernan-Shepard Commission for restructuring local government. Tuesday in Kokomo, Daniels appeared with his predecessor, former Gov. Joe Kernan - who co-chaired the commission - to promote the legislation.
Two other Kernan-Shepard bills are still alive, however; they already passed in the state Senate and are on their way to the Indiana House. Senate Bill 506 creates a process for replacing the county commissioners with a single county executive. Senate Bill 452 moves municipal elections from odd-numbered to even-numbered years, and prohibits police and firefighters from serving on the elected councils of the towns that employ them.