By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press
INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana House committee on Monday advanced legislation that would allow voters in the state's 1,008 townships to choose whether to keep their trustees or do away with that layer of government and pass emergency assistance duties up to the county level.
House Bill 1181 won the approval of the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee on an 11-0 vote. It now moves to the full chamber for consideration.
Democratic Rep. Bill Crawford of Indianapolis, the bill's author, said his intent is to let Hoosiers decide for themselves whether they consider townships an efficient and effective layer of government.
It's a grass-roots approach, in contrast to calls from Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce to do away with township trustees entirely, though in many cases it would accomplish the same goal.
Former Democratic state Rep. Joe Micon, who now is the executive director of the Lafayette (Ind.) Urban Ministry, said he thinks the bill appropriately finds the middle ground between what's ideal and what's politically possible.
"This is a good place to start the process," he said.
Debbie Driskell, the president of the Indiana Township Association, said that while she opposes the bill, if lawmakers are to consider abolishing township trustees, "this is the best way to do it - allowing people to have a vote."
However, county-level officials warned that such a patchwork approach could cause confusion because it's possible that in one county, some townships would be kept and others would be eliminated.
"I think you're going to create a big mess," said Tony Wolfe, the Gibson County Council president, who testified before the committee Monday morning.
Those officials said that instead of holding referendums on a township-by-township basis, voters should make a blanket decision that would apply countywide.
Last year, Daniels pitched an overhaul of local government, largely based on the recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel chaired by former Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard, an Evansville native. Among those reforms was the elimination of township government.
But the package of reforms, including one dealing with township government, was watered down in the Republican-led Senate and killed outright in the Democratic-controlled House.
Some of the committee's Democrats voted to put the question to voters, but said they remain hesitant to do away with a layer of government that, at its best, works as an around-the-clock last resort for those needing help right away.
"I'm not a bit interested in eliminating township government," said Rep. Dennis Tyler, D-Muncie. "I think there's a need for it."
A Courier & Press analysis of financial reports from townships in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Gibson and Posey counties found that, on average, 63 cents is being spent on administrative costs per dollar of poor relief provided in those townships.
However, supporters of keeping township trustees in place to provide poor relief point out that they often offer assistance that isn't measured financially, such as pointing those who ask in the right direction. They also are required to conduct inspections to ensure that those who receive help qualify for it - another costly administrative expense.
Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago, pointed to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration's recently abandoned modernization project, during which some applicants for benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps complained of long waits before their applications were processed.
Some have credited township trustees with helping cover the cost of life-saving prescription drugs while their constituents waited to receive their Medicaid benefits.
The most interesting back-and-forth of the two-hour hearing occurred between committee members and Mark Lawrance, the senior vice president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and a proponent of eliminating township government.
Lawrance said many people don't know what township trustees do, let alone who their trustees are and where their offices are.
The committee's chairman, Rep. John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, countered that poor relief recipients know who their trustees are and know how to find them.
"We have to be cognizant of the fact that there are counties that don't have bus service to the county seat."
Lawrance, who said he believes county government could utilize nonprofit organizations to deliver emergency assistance more efficiently than township trustees can, said that though the task should be handled centrally, points of distribution could be established away from county seats.
Wolfe said he was concerned about not just where a county poor relief administrator would be located, but whether that administrator would be available at night and on weekends, as many trustees are currently.
Micon said that while some trustees do good work, "I think you also have to understand that, in some areas, the system's broken."
He said that over the last century, Indiana slowly has shifted responsibilities away from township government, starting with roads, then schools, then school textbook assistance in 1986 and finally by eliminating most township assessors in 2008.
"The broad sweep of history is at your back," he said.