EDITORIAL: Try it again this session

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January 5, 2010

Tribune editorial board The Kokomo Tribune Tue Jan 05, 2010, 05:05 PM EST

We’ve got it good in Howard County.

Despite the two-year recession, despite losing a quarter of our employment over the past decade, local governments function well.

Unlike in Marion and Madison counties, property tax bills are mailed out on time. Every resident has access to a public library. Our five public school systems nurture achievement while keeping a careful watch over taxpayer money; the four county high schools recently were named Best Buys by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

THE ISSUE: Indiana government reform.

OUR VIEW: Kernan-Shepard recommendations deserve further consideration.

It’s understandable that some here don’t recognize as needed the recommendations of the Commission on Local Government Reform. But the committee, led by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Chief Justice Randall Shepard, discovered some sobering facts.

• About 400,000 Hoosiers in 38 counties haven’t access to a library.

• Some school systems receive such little funding, they cannot offer the curriculum necessary for their graduates to be admitted at Indiana University Bloomington or Purdue University at West Lafayette in 2011.

• Some township trustees spend more on themselves and their staffs than they do in poor relief each year. Liberty Township Trustee Linda Grove, for example, paid herself and family more than $20,000 in 2009, yet spent $18,229 in direct assistance through the middle of last month.

Not every bill proposing government reform made it out of Senate committees last year. One that would’ve eliminated township government only addressed nepotism and excessive cash reserves. Another, that would’ve forced the consolidation of administrations of school districts of 1,000 students or fewer, wasn’t brought to a vote.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, who established the Commission on Local Government Reform more than two years ago, was disappointed. “We’ll try again next year,” he said.

We hope he does.

Hoosiers usually vote from their front porches. If their trash gets collected, if their streets get plowed, they believe all is right with the world. But there are places in Indiana where residents don’t receive the kind of governmental service we’re accustomed to in Howard County.

It was for those Hoosiers the Commission on Local Government Reform was established. Its recommendations deserve further consideration this legislative session.

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