Stop Governing Like This
The following is a guest blog posting by Mark Miles, President of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership.
This morning I had the chance to chat with Abdul about a critical issue – how do we make local government cost less and work better? The Kernan-Shepard Commission has given us a blueprint: Eliminate township government, wiping away a layer of bureaucracy designed in the 1850s. Consolidate administrative offices at the county level for greater accountability. And restructure school and library districts, to get more money into our classrooms and expand library services to the 400,000 Hoosiers who live outside one of the 238 current districts.
This is simple common sense. That’s why our organization, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, has joined with other like-minded groups to form MySmartGov.org, a coalition to push for the Kernan-Shepard recommendations during the next legislative session. For us, reform is also an economic development issue – to keep taxes competitive and avoid cuts in critical services, we have to restructure government (especially with the looming impact of property tax caps).
Our opposition has been predictable – folks who have a stake in the status quo will fight hard to keep the perks of elected office. They’ll try to say that township government is closest to the people. But just look at last year’s property tax reassessment debacle and ask yourself if you want to keep subsidizing the current system with your tax dollars, and keep getting inconsistent, inefficient service in return?
Folks like David Bottorff at the Association of Indiana Counties have also tried to characterize our coalition as a cabal of business interests. But if you really want to see big money in politics, look at local government – according to the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission, local units of government spent more than $4 million lobbying the General Assembly over the last two legislative sessions. Those are your tax dollars at work.
I’ll close by saying that this isn’t a partisan issue. When I returned to Indianapolis a few years ago, I said I felt like Rip Van Winkle: When I left, Republicans were the party of UniGov. When I got back 15 years later, they were opposing Mayor Peterson’s efforts to consolidate police and fire services. Today, both parties are sitting the issue out, so as not to offend the local elected officials who populate their organizations. But we also have folks from both sides of the aisle supporting the cause – visit stopgoverninglikethis.com to read perspectives from Jen Wagner and Josh Gillespie on reform.
The bottom line is, if we want change, voters will have to demand it. It’s been said that in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve. Hoosiers deserve better.
You can read more of Mark’s thoughts at http://blog.cincorp.com. Well-thought out replies are always welcome.
