Abdul – serious question – how can the General Assembly create a law that doesn’t extend statewide ? I thought that locale-based stuff got thrown out ?

Gene, while legislation applying to specific cities is banned, what they are allowed to do is to classify the cities according to size and then apply the law equally to those cities that fall within those size classifcations. Indianapolis is in a category all by itself. That’s how they get around passing laws applying specifically to Indy or leaving Indy out.

The City of Indianapolis is considered a Class One City. However, our county does not need 9 township trustees, 9 advisory boards with 9 additional staffs, multiple buildings to maintain, leases, utility bills, office supplies and equipment to administer poor relief vouchers. Trustees in Marion County do not maintain cemeteries. Center Township has the largest budget and does not have a volunteer fire department.

Unigov annexed the 8 surrounding townships to increase the taxing base for the city of Indianapolis because the old city limits had a majority of tax exempt real estate, government owned buildings and vacant land, parks, schools, non profit organizations owned buildings and land, churches and other religious organizations, hospitals, libraries, historic districts, etc. Homeowners in Center Township paid higher property taxes for houses than other townships for years on older homes.

City of Speedway in Wayne Township, City of Lawrence in Lawrence Townwship, City of Beech Grove in Center/Perry Township have a mayor, city council, town clerks, and other elected officials plus township trustees and advisory boards on the public payroll, as well as vote for the mayor and city-county councilors in Indianapolis. These 3 cities were allowed to keep their charters when unigov was enacted.

Poor relief was meant to be temporary assistance for citizens in need of help based on their income or their financial condition prevented them from sustaining themselves for a brief period of time. It was never intended to be a long-term assistance program. In the 21st Century, Marion County should have one centralized office with a sufficient staff to administer poor relief assistance across the county, assist the homeless, stranded travelers, and bury the indigent, which would be a huge tax savings for property owners. The city-county council should appropriate and approve the budget for this operation. Township boards should be abolished since they are only required by law to meet 4 times a year to approve contracts and the budget for the trustees and receive compensation for their time spent in meetings.

These issues should be resolved by a referendum on the 2010 November ballot by voters and not legislators who are a part of the political machines who have ignored the wishes of their constituents.

“COIT” = county OPTION income tax. That’s how you do legislation state-wide but target a single county. Make it ‘optional’ so the the other counties get to ignore it (until they get greedy, too).

The library consolidation planning bill was also amended to exclude Marion County, rumor has it due to the lobbying power of Speedway residents. I add my voice to Gene’s above: why keep exempting Marion County?