Gov. Mitch Daniels has called on legislators to eliminate townships, a level of government he says is rooted in the 19th century.
He describes Indiana’s more than 1,000 townships as inefficient, and he notes that they are sitting on millions of taxpayer dollars at a time when other levels of government are struggling to make ends meet.
Reform advocates point out that some townships spend more on overhead than they spend on providing help to needy families, and they suggest that taxpayers would be better off if lawmakers simply eliminated townships and handed their duties to someone else.
Representatives of the townships, of course, disagree. Calling itself “the voice for grassroots government,” the Indiana Township Association argues that bigger isn’t necessarily better. It points to examples where consolidated agencies actually grew more expensive.
Part of the argument is that one size really doesn’t fit all. The association says rural areas, for example, don’t really need or want the same level of services provided to residents of cities or towns, and it notes that in a consolidated department roles now carried out by part-time workers or even volunteers might fall to full-time workers at much higher levels of pay.
Where governments are smaller, the association says, elected officials are able to exercise more direct oversight and thus control spending. It suggests that lamwmakers might want to look at shifting more responsibility to the townships rather than taking them out of the mix.
And then there are those who say the real solution might be somewhere in the middle. Eel Township Trustee Tom Knepper, for example, has suggested that it might make sense for counties to look at combining some townships.
That is an idea being considered in neighboring Howard County, where representatives of eight of the 11 townships began meeting last year to discuss consolidating down to five townships, using the existing school district boundaries. Sen. Jim Buck, a Republican from Kokomo, is pushing a proposal that would take that model statewide.
At this point, it’s hard to say whether any reform measure will gain much traction. The current system has lots of support in the General Assembly.
For his part, the governor has said he plans to take his argument statewide, hoping to rally voters to push for change.
If you have an opinion on the topic, now would be a good time to speak up.
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