EDITORIAL: Local government reform looks promising, but idea needs debate

The News-Dispatch

Eliminating township assessors this year was small potatoes compared with the proposal Gov. Mitch Daniels is sending to the Indiana General Assembly for the session that gets going in January.

"Mitch the Knife," as he was nicknamed earlier in his career, is trading up to a bigger tool. Some might call it a chain saw, and the governor is looking at some pretty thick brush to clear.

While a chain saw approach suggests recklessness, Daniels makes strong arguments for streamlining county government, and it is based on the thoughtful input of the panel headed by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard.

The governor suggests counties have one elected chief executive to oversee county government. That would eliminate the current county executive, the county commissioners. The new official would appoint the county coroner, treasurer, recorder, assessor, surveyor - all of which are currently elected posts, the Associated Press reports.

Those elected officials' jobs wouldn't be eliminated, since that work must be done, so counties can't expect to see big savings by appointing those officeholders. But it's hard to argue that all of these positions should answer to the voters.

Daniels makes a strong argument, saying, "A single elected county executive would provide county government with a single point of leadership, contact and accountability." That executive would take over the legislative duties of current county commissions, leaving county council as the one legislative body.

"Indiana is the only state that divides fiscal and other legislative decision-making between its county commissions and councils. ... This is a recipe for confusion and passing the buck," the governor said.

These and other proposals will generate a lot of debate in the 2009 Legislature - and they should be debated. Even though the ideas look promising, and revamping government is overdue, let's not rev up the chain saw. This work needs to be done carefully.