Supporting the Arts on Others’ Dime (Lots of Dimes)

Let’s be clear: Carmel’s Palladium performing arts center is a good thing, adding to the quality of life for residents of the Hamilton County city and surrounding areas. A township trustee spending $10,000 in taxpayer money so he, township board members and their guests could enjoy the grand opening is the latest in a long line of reasons to do away with this outdated form of government.

The key phrase is "taxpayer money." Which makes the following comments all the more ridiculous. The trustee told WRTV-Channel 6, "From my standpoint, it was the right thing to do." The township board chairman adds, "We view this as supporting the arts in Carmel."

The Indianapolis Star editorial on Saturday stated in part:

Keep in mind that poor relief is one of the purported purposes of township government. But tuxedoed patron of the arts? Not on the official list of a township trustee’s duties.

(Trustee Douglas) Callahan, however, was unrepentant in an interview with The Star’s Chris Sikich. He even tried to argue that township officials have been picked on by powerful forces. "People are throwing us to the dogs constantly, from the (Indiana) Chamber of Commerce to the media to the governor’s office,” he said.

The state chamber, the governor and the editorial boards of 16 Indiana newspapers, along with dozens of other officials and organizations, have indeed been critical of township government. But their complaints aren’t so much with the people who fill township offices as with the system in which they operate. Even if every existing township official were to be replaced with people of impeccable judgment and integrity, the township system still would be antiquated, inefficient and unnecessary.

And although Callahan and the township board members exercised poor judgment in using tax dollars to buy tickets to a fancy celebration, the more significant outrage is that Indiana’s townships are collectively hoarding at least $295 million in public money while fewer people in need receive assistance.

Really, it’s time for reform. It won’t happen, however, unless Hoosiers speak up and demand it. Need more convincing. Check out MySmartGov

UPDATE: Upon advice of the Clay Township Attorney, who also happens to be House Speaker Brian Bosma, township officials have decided to do the right thing and return the $10,000 used on Palladium tickets.

Township Numbers Not Adding Up

We revisit Al Hornaday, a Morgan County township trustee trying to inject some common sense into local government. In today’s brief video, Hornaday explains there are some major discrepancies between the small amount of poor relief provided in some townships and the high costs of simply running the township office. Visit www.MySmartGov.org for more.

Why Are Townships Still Here?

Al Hornaday is a former township trustee in Morgan County. As you will see, he is a hard-working Hoosier doing what he could to help people in his community. But in this short video – and several to come on budget numbers, emergency services and more – Al, who served for 12 years, says the office is simply no longer needed.

For more information, be sure to visit MySmartGov.org.

Indy Star: Time is Now for Township Reform

We’ve been on this train for quite a while, but now it looks like headway can finally be made for Hoosier taxpayers. The Indy Star asserts:

Daniels has supported the elimination of townships in the past, but he’s never had the votes needed to make it happen. Now, with outgoing House Speaker Pat Bauer reduced to irrelevancy, the governor needs to press hard to dissolve townships, a move that would save tax dollars, reduce corruption and improve the delivery of services.

However, on this issue, the governor can’t count on the Republican caucus to remain fully behind him. Some of the staunchest defenders of the status quo — state Sen. Dennis Kruse, for instance — hail from the GOP. Kruse, for one, contends that townships should be retained because they are a prime training ground for new politicians and political workers.

It’s a shaky argument, of course, given that a majority of states — 60 percent — operate just fine without townships. But it’s one advocates for change, including the governor, must address.

The need for reform became even more critical after Tuesday, when voters gave overwhelming approval to the constitutional amendment that caps property tax rates. Township officials have been serial hoarders of tax dollars; more than $200 million was tucked away in townships’ surplus accounts when last measured. Last month, a trustee in Johnson County acknowledged that White River Township had so much money in the bank that it didn’t need to collect any property tax dollars for at least the next year. That story could be repeated around the state if other trustees were as forthcoming.

Bob Speaks; We Should Listen

I do not know Bob Anderson of Wonder Lake, Illinois. But Bob makes a lot of sense.

His comments in a recent letter to the editor to a suburban Chicago newspaper are right on target — whether one resides in his home state or back home in Indiana.

We’ve been saying the same thing in various forms for the past six years or so. And we’ll continue to say it, and with the help of Hoosiers who simply don’t understand how Indiana can afford a malfunctioning system of government.

For today, the floor is Bob Anderson’s. Let’s hold up our end of his argument (If they can do it, so can we). Here are his words:

Recently, House Speaker Michael Madigan introduced a Constitutional amendment to abolish the position of Illinois’ office of lieutenant governor.

Rep. Jack Franks has also called for the abolition of the office. Gov. Pat Quinn, a former lieutenant governor, states the position is useless.

Now, in the 21st century, the township form of government is also useless.

If Gov. Quinn, Speaker Madigan and Rep. Franks want to show real leadership they should work to introduce a Constitutional amendment to abolish obsolete township government in Illinois.

Illinois has 1,433 township governments in addition to 1,395 road districts that are outmoded, duplicative, inefficient, and most of all, costly.

Township government is an outdated vestige of a once useful government established in the 1800s to help farmers and settlers when 98 percent of the population lived in rural areas.

There is pending legislation in Indiana to abolish their townships. If they can do it, so can we.

Townships should be eliminated, with the transfer of their duties to general purpose governments – counties and municipalities. This would simplify the election process, improve services and reduce cost of local government.

Too Much Government in Too Many Places

Check out these words of New York Attorney General (and candidate for governor) Andrew Cuomo:

Our system of local government is broken … New York has more than 10,521 overlapping governments, including counties, towns, villages, school districts, special districts and public authorities. These entities impose layer upon layer of taxing structures — with citizens receiving multiple tax bills annually — resulting in the highest local property tax burden in the nation … To hold government to account the people must have a government they can understand. But what they have today instead at the local level is a ramshackle mess. The current local government system is the product of sheer historical accumulation — not logic, reason or common sense.

Well said. No, make that very well said. The Indiana Chamber and many, many others have put forth a strong case in recent years that township government in our state is beyond repair. Each new revelation of outlandish township reserves, unsightly administrative costs to deliver poor relief and outright criminal behavior further makes the point.

But like most challenges, it’s not just an Indiana problem. The Governing magazine article that featured the Cuomo quote also included the following. Maybe, just maybe, the momentum will grow, lawmakers will step up to the plate and all Hoosiers will benefit.

Rich Pahls, a Nebraska state senator from Omaha, has proposed merging many of his state’s 93 counties. The jurisdictions were designed for the days of the horse and buggy, he pointed out to the New York Times, not an era when “people will drive 100 miles to the grocery store.”

New Jersey, meanwhile, has some of the highest property taxes in the country, thanks in part to its 567 municipalities, a third of them with fewer than 5,000 residents, along with 611 school districts and 486 local authorities. Bergen County alone has 70 school districts and 76 superintendents.

New York State has more than 10,500 governmental entities that levy taxes and fees, and that depend on state largesse for any number of needs. This includes towns, villages and a multiplicity of water, sewer, lighting, school, 911 and other districts. Erie County, which is where Buffalo is located, has over 1,000 such local governing entities alone.

But while political leaders in the U.S. have been talking about local government rationalization, in Denmark, they’ve actually done it.

In 2007, Denmark shrunk the number of municipalities from 271 to 98. County government was completely eliminated. Fully 455,000 local government employees were involved in the restructuring; and 30,000 physically relocated to a new site. The government projects $274 million (1.6 billion DKK) in savings from the restructuring.

The implementation of this massive reform, which began in 2002, offers important lessons as other governments look to achieve big cost savings through rationalizing local government.

Anyone hoping to rationalize the delivery of services from the state level on down must first understand where the opportunities lie to eliminate duplication and inefficiency. Then, you need to lay the groundwork for public acceptance of the change. Both of these goals can be served by gathering hard data on what every unit of government does, how much it spends and what it gets for its money. Only after these goals have been achieved can you make that information readily available to the public.

This is not an easy task. The collection of data alone is enormous. But data gives you the ability to shine a light on what is taking place under the status quo, making the tough task of driving change a little easier.

County Assessor Missing (in) Action

When the South Bend Tribune headline reads, "St. Joseph County assessor not seen in office for weeks," one can be fairly confident it’s going to be an interesting story. I wasn’t disappointed.

Although the recent focus has been on townships and how their usefulness has long since gone away in most cases, the original local government efficiency recommendations from the Kernan-Shepard Commission also noted that county officials (like the assessor) should be appointed rather than elected. Wouldn’t that come in handy in this case?

Here’s a brief excerpt below and a link to the full story.

St. Joseph County Assessor David Wesolowski, defeated in his Democratic primary bid this spring for a seventh term, has not been at work since at least mid-April.

Wesolowski confirms that he’s been out of the office for several weeks but says he’s been taking some deserved time off.

"He’s been in hiding," said Dennis Dillman, a member of the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals, which operates out of the same office as Wesolowski on the third floor of the County-City Building.

Reached by cell phone Friday, Wesolowski explained that he took time off in April to campaign and that he has been on vacation since "for health purposes and everything else, too."

"I’m entitled to that," he said, adding that he has kept in touch with the office by both phone and e-mail and even visited there Wednesday afternoon.

As an elected official, Wesolowski is not required by state law to work a certain number of hours or to report the hours that he does work. He receives no set number of vacation days, personal days or sick days. 

Townships are Blaming the Puppies

Thanks to a story by WRTV 6 News in Indianapolis, we now know why townships don’t always file their state-required reports on time — or at all in some cases. It’s because "the dog ate my homework" or "we can’t do that because we don’t know how to use a computer."

Elementary school teachers have heard the former for years, while the latter is no longer applicable as that computer and Internet thing appears to be here to say. Sure, I gave my own interpretations to township officials’ comments when questioned about their reports, but read for yourself and see if you don’t come away with the same impression.

It’s not just an Indianapolis problem, of course. It’s more than 1,000 trustees statewide and 3,000-4,000 advisory board members taking part in a form of government that features ineffectiveness, inefficiency, nepotism, fraud and the like. Just a few of those recent stories can be found here, here, here and here.

While the effort to find a better way to serve citizens and save taxpayer money continues, the results have unfortunately become a farce. The township system DOES NOT WORK, and maybe even worse, lawmakers won’t do anything about it. Those in office and those running for election this fall: When will you fix this mess?

Tales of Township Turmoil … Part 392

Eric Bradner of the Evansville Courier & Press continues his fine work in outlining the shortcomings of township government. See his latest entry here, with more expected in coming weeks.

The topic (late or not filed at all state-required financial reports) is now new; the reports for fiscal year 2009 (due in the first few months of this year) are missing in action for many. In addition to the story details, even more township trustees (nearly 400 of them) have filed to file an annual salary report. Who knows what interesting numbers are in hiding.

Here’s a brief section of Bradner’s story. It leaves one thinking — once again — why these townships continue to exist.

(In Warrick County), Lane Township Trustee Linda Orth … said she never knew she was supposed to file an annual financial report with the state and was unaware of the switch to an electronic format.

"I am still learning what I am supposed to do and not do," she said. "They change these rules quite regularly, and there is no official training."

Orth was appointed to the position in 2006 because her predecessor quit. She kept the job after that year’s election because no one ran for trustee. She later tried to resign, but said county officials told her she should wait until a replacement was trained. No one was interested.