Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed this past week a painful new state budget, one that eliminates spending on some Medicaid programs, among them dental care, and reduces state support for higher education by three percent. In the last budget, Daniels felt it necessary to cut state support for K-12 education by $300 million. These difficult decisions were the result of Indiana's attempts to cope with recession-damaged state revenues, as well as with reform of the property tax system.
We would expect that Daniels' $27.7 billion budget proposal is going to inspire considerable debate by lawmakers, lobby groups, and citizens interested in programs that will be weakened or eliminated by the budget. For example, the budget includes some action on the Evansville Psychiatric Childrens Center, a facility long protected by Evansville lawmakers. We expect we will be among those in line who have something to say about the small, yet vital center on Morgan Avenue.
Meanwhile, as the state legislature prepares for budget discussions, we must point out that our antique level of local government, townships, sits off to the side, apparently outside the fiscal fray.
Consider this, at a time when Indiana school districts were struggling to deal with the $300 million cut — think Mount Vernon — Indiana's township trustees were collectively sitting on $215 million in surpluses. That is money they were not spending on helping the poor with emergency assistance. And that does not include the $70,000 a former Knight Township trustee was allegedly misappropriating for her personal use — think concert tickets. Nor did it include rent that some trustees in Indiana were paying to themselves to maintain offices in their homes, and it did not include salaries paid by some of them to their own relatives who work for them in their township offices.
But unless the Indiana Legislature does something about township government, this situation will continue unabated, while, at the same time, lawmakers wring their hands and wonder aloud what they can do about government spending.
Of course, ending or curbing township government would not solve the state's overall spending problems, but it would plug one unnecessary hole in local government spending.
Let us be clear on several points. We do have good people in each county who sometimes need emergency help — a prescription filled or a utility bill paid. Local government does need an office to distribute this assistance but not multiple offices, and certainly not one in each township.
This all made sense when people had to walk or ride a buggy to the township office, but not today, in an age of electronic communications and motorized transportation.
Unfortunately, too many lawmakers have close connections to township officials, often as political allies, hence their reluctance to lessen or eliminate the role of township government. But they need to do it.
We know that's tough, but so is dealing with strained government budgets throughout Indiana.
To make the point, 15 Indiana newspapers, including The Evansville Courier & Press, will be waging a campaign during the current legislative session to make the case for ending township government in Indiana. That campaign begins today.
Regular readers of the Courier & Press Opinion page know that township government has long been a concern of ours.
We welcome this campaign by the Star and other newspapers to reduce the size of government in Indiana, and hope that it will have as much success as last year's campaign to place new restrictions on lobbying at the state legislature.