INDIANAPOLIS - Parts of the local government overhaul Gov. Mitch Daniels is urging were derailed Wednesday as state lawmakers defeated or gutted three key pieces of the reform legislation.
Township trustees' jobs would not be eliminated, county elected offices such as coroner would not become appointees and the smallest school districts would not be consolidated under actions taken by Senate committees on Wednesday.
"We're disappointed but not discouraged," said Mary Dieter, spokeswoman for MySmartgov.org, a Chamber of Commerce-backed lobbying group that is advocating the changes recommended by the Kernan-Shepard Commission. "We think that lawmakers will begin to hear more and more from their constituents. At this point, we don't think the lawmakers understand how very much their constituents want the changes."
Here are the details:
The Senate Local Government Committee gutted Senate Bill 512, which would have eliminated trustees and other township-level officials and transferred their duties to the county level. The committee left only two provisions in the bill: township officials won't be allowed to employ their relatives, and township budgets will get reviewed by county councils. The scaled-back version passed 9-2.
Sen. Connie Lawson, the committee chairwoman and bill author, was disappointed. Lawson, R-Danville, said abolishing township government is a tough political challenge because lawmakers know the township officials in their districts and won't break the comfort of the status quo.
"It's not that government is not operating," Lawson said. "It's that it's not operating to its full potential." She hopes to revive the township-elimination proposal again next year.
The only remaining portions of Senate Bill 512 - the township-nepotism ban and council review - now advance to the full Senate, which could further change the wording.
Senate Joint Resolution 7 would have amended the state constitution so that four countywide elected offices - coroner, surveyor, treasurer and recorder - would become appointees. The Senate Local Government Committee defeated that proposal Wednesday. As elected county officials packed a committee meeting to protest the proposal, two Republican senators - Sue Landske of Cedar Lake and Jim Buck of Kokomo - broke with the Republican governor and joined four Democrats to defeat the bill, 6-5.
The amendment's author, Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, said he thought the proposal "had a chance to pass." But county officials criticized the proposal as unfair; and Sen. Richard Young, D-Milltown, said other elected offices such as county clerk ought to have been included.
The governor issued a statement late Wednesday that chided Landske and Buck for voting no on SJR-7.
"I'll make no comment about Democrats all voting against reform, but when it comes to two members of my party, I'm disappointed in them and embarrassed for them," Daniels said. "We'll try again next year."
Senate Bill 521 originally would have made the smallest public school systems - those of 1,000 pupils or fewer - consolidate their administrative offices over three years.
The Senate Education Committee debated it at length in a room packed with school officials. In light of opposition from small districts, committee chairwoman Sen. Teresa Lubbers, R-Indianapolis, announced she would not take a vote on the bill.
Today is the deadline for Senate bills to advance out of committee, and no more hearings of the Education Committee are scheduled this week. "As a practical matter, it's probably dead," state Sen. Gary Dillon, R-Columbia City, said of his consolidation bill.
Daniels has asked the Legislature to pass 20 of the 27 recommendations of the Kernan-Shepard Commission for restructuring local government. Tuesday in Kokomo, Daniels promoted the legislation in a joint appearance with his predecessor, former Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan, who co-chaired the reform commission. More public meetings led by current and former top state officials to tout the Kernan-Shepard proposals are scheduled: Friday in Terre Haute and Monday in Lafayette. At the Feb. 25 meeting in Evansville, commission co-chair Randall Shepard, Indiana's chief justice, will speak, along with former Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis.
"These are all intentionally scheduled to show people the support these measures do have," said Dieter, the MySmartgov.org spokeswoman.
Opponents of the legislation - county and township officeholders and their employees - have the ear of lawmakers and are their traditional political allies, Dieter said. "It's the people against the special interests," she said. "Nobody else opposes these (proposals)."
Despite Wednesday's outcome, two other Kernan-Shepard bills still are alive in the Legislature. Senate Bill 506 creates a process for replacing county commissioners with a single county executive. Senate Bill 452 moves municipal elections from odd-numbered to even-numbered years, and prohibits police and firefighters from serving on the elected councils of the towns that employ them.
Both have passed the Republican-controlled Senate and are on their way to the Democratic-controlled House.