EDITORIAL: It's time to reinvent government

The Times of Northwest Indiana

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is being tight-fisted on spending in 2009, but another part of his legislative agenda deserves wholehearted support.

What Daniels proposes for the reinvention of local government is long overdue.

It has been more than a year since the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, headed by former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard, issued its list of 27 recommendations.

And even those have been more than a century in the making. That's how long we've been getting reports on how to streamline local government.

Now it's time to finally retool for the 21st century, bringing more accountability and more efficiency and at less cost.

Among Daniels' recommendations:

* Consolidate school districts with less than 1,000 students. Note this would not consolidate schools themselves, but the school districts that operate those schools. The idea is to cut the administrative cost and deliver more of the education dollar to classroom instruction.

* Eliminate townships and send those responsibilities to the county. Again, less overhead cost means more bang for the buck. Besides, travel to the county seat to seek services is much easier since the advent of the automobile a century ago.

* Replace the three county commissioners with a single county executive, giving county councils powers similar to that of a city council. This would make it easier to know who holds the reins of power in the county -- and who to go to both for help and for blame.

* End elections for county assessors, coroners, recorders, surveyors and treasurers. The county executive would appoint people to serve in those posts, making it easier to hold incompetent department heads accountable. County auditors, clerks, prosecutors and sheriffs would remain elected positions.

* Hold elections only in even years. Ending that extra election year would save the taxpayers millions of dollars. Administering elections is expensive.

The Indiana General Assembly has not been enthusiastic about this effort but needs to jump on the bandwagon for the sake of the citizens.

Government restructuring is long overdue.