INDIANAPOLIS — State lawmakers' tepid support for Gov. Mitch Daniels' local government reform initiatives was on broad public display last week.
During the governor's annual State of the State address, he was interrupted by the Indiana General Assembly's applause 18 times. Once — when he said tax increases should be off the table — he even asked for and received an "amen" from both Republicans and Democrats.
The response was much different when he said he wants to eliminate township government entirely and ditch three-member county boards of commissioners in favor of a single county executive.
Daniels said only seven of the 27 proposals from a blue-ribbon commission chaired by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard in 2007 have been enacted, and he said that number is too low.
As that section of his speech ended, about half the Republicans in the House chamber clapped. All the Democrats sat quietly. No one stood up to offer any sort of rousing endorsement.
Daniels noticed.
"That's somewhere short of an 'amen,'" he joked.
Minutes after the governor finished speaking, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said it's more likely that lawmakers will take another look at the government reform initiatives that cleared the Republican-led Senate, but not the House, which was then led by Democrats, last year.
Among those:
Township trustees would keep their jobs delivering emergency poor relief and funding fire protection, but their three-member advisory boards, which meet quarterly and approve trustees' budgets, would be eliminated. Fiscal oversight duties would be bumped to county councils.
Nepotism — the practice of elected officials hiring relatives for jobs in their offices — would be banned in township offices.
"The Senate passed some key reforms, many of which the governor spoke of tonight," Bosma said. "House Republicans endorsed the package that passed the Senate. I think many of our members stand ready to stand with our Senate colleagues and the governor to enact these reforms."
He said that while he thinks the changes that passed the Senate last year are more likely to pass this year than a complete elimination of township government, Daniels' initiatives will get committee hearings.
That, he said, is more than Democrats previously have given the Kernan-Shepard proposals.
"What I did pledge in addition to my own vote for many of these reforms is that they will receive a fair and open hearing and vote in committee and not the orchestrated, artificial demise that those initiatives have suffered in the last several sessions," he said.
"So, I think you'll see action on many of these initiatives, both by the House and the Senate."
House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said he thinks the push for local government reform is misplaced. Bauer said this year's session should focus on writing the state's new two-year budget and enacting legislation that will create jobs.
If Daniels wants to get rid of townships, Bauer said, he should push for the bill the House passed last year.
That bill would allow for township-by-township referendums on whether to keep their trustees in place or replace them with county-appointed officials.
Critics of that bill said it would lead to a patchwork system that confused residents. Senate Republicans said if there are to be referendums, they should instead be on a county-by-county basis.
Sen. Connie Lawson, the Danville Republican who chairs her chamber's local government committee, has introduced several local government reform bills that will be considered during this year's session.
One would keep township trustees but abolish township boards. Another would allow counties to shift to a single executive. Under that bill, such a move would require voters' approval.