Township Talk
Unless you were paying close attention this week, there were three items in the news this week regarding local government which I think further illustrate the inevitable change that is coming to Indiana.
In Marion County, the Franklin Township Board voted 6-0-1 to move forward with fire consolidation.
Greenwood and White River Township are looking at a consolidation that when done would make them one of the larger municipalities in Indiana.
And for the first time, Township government budgets are coming under somewhat real scrutiny because of a new law that gives County-Councils non-binding review over their budgets.
You can see an analysis of the township budgets here. Marion County Twp Analysis If you look closely at the numbers you will see that many of the Townships sit on millions in operational fund balances and give out very little poor relief. That strikes me as odd for two reasons, we are in one of the worst economic slowdowns since the great depression. Second, during the last legislative session, township officials bemoaned how much poor relief they had administer, give out, but as you can see by the analysis the word of the day is large fund balance.
And for the record the analysis was presented by the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce to the City-Council and no Township officials showed up to dispute the figures.
And even stepping away from poor relief and looking simply at fire service I wonder how some of these departments are going to survive. Pike Township is seeing a close to $6 million drop in its fire fighting levy. Lawrence is losing 1.4 million in its levy. Wayne Township is increasing its fire budget from $21.1 million to $23 million. I personally would like to know how they pulled this off in an age of property tax caps.
I bring all this up because we are a little more than three months away from the full impact of property tax caps. And if large cities like Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, Evansville and Carmel are going to have difficulties managing their budgets with less revenue, I can only imagine what it is going to be like for these smaller, and in many cases less useful, units of government.
September 19th, 2009 at 8:36 am
“Missing the numbers” is not without pattern: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2343178/posts
September 19th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Hmmm, have to go look at some numbers and figure out when Carmel surpassed a couple other cities in Indiana to become large.
September 19th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Has anyone else heard rumors about money missing from a certain township's bank account? I don't want to mention which one, but you could ask 'Larry'….
September 19th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I've said it many times: Tax caps with no plan or funding mechanism in place to maintain municipal services = agenda. The increasingly failed attempts to concentrate our government into a top-down system (as opposed to local governments with local people in control) drove a solution that was contrived at the top.
It started by the Governor changing tax laws and throwing municipalities into a frenzy that included misunderstandings and dramatically increased tax rates for property owners, who became angry (as expected). Along came the same Administration to help by offering tax caps as a solution to the problem that they had caused – and all of the folks who were so upset were suddenly so happy.
Strangely enough, there was also a new media focus that began nitpicking at local governments (often with excellent reason). But the vocal media critics were not only exposing injustices in municipal governments, they were consistently framing those injustices with costs and with a need to consolidate. How fortunate for the Governor.
So what ends up happening? The people are stirred up into disliking the fact that they have an opportunity for local representation. The people are convinced that as a result of lower tax revenue and local mismanagement, consolidation of power is healthy and good. And ultimately, the long-planned strategy to remove our local voices and dismantle our system of local representation is successful.
If nothing else, this is certain evidence revealing that history repeats itself, and that these who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. Good luck as we move forward, folks. Once this system is in place, we're all going to need it.
September 19th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Pray tell how, Shorebreak, history is repeating itself. With the exception of wholesale school consolidation from 1966-71, there is no history whatsoever of Indiana governmental units down-sizing.
And there is no history of the property tax system reinventing itself, either.
But it doesn't take evidence to understand that our township system is antiquate,d at best. (This is where Wilson inserts the line that townships only cost ____cents per $100 of AV).
(And whatever that figure is, it's five times too much)
Shore, this isn't about government top-down. It's about the lowest level of government trolling along like it did in 1840. But it's not 1840. We don't need township government. In every Indiana county, there are locally-elected officials “close to the people” whose offices could take over most of these services.
Townships will go away. Hoarding money, like they are in Washington Township, will not fly ultimately. THey're hoarding it to dole out to friendly projects and causes.
And that nutcase in Wayne needs defeated in the May primary. My sense is, that will happen.
September 19th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
“Missing the numbers” is not without pattern: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2343178/posts
September 19th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Hmmm, have to go look at some numbers and figure out when Carmel surpassed a couple other cities in Indiana to become large.
September 19th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Has anyone else heard rumors about money missing from a certain township's bank account? I don't want to mention which one, but you could ask 'Larry'….
September 19th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I've said it many times: Tax caps with no plan or funding mechanism in place to maintain municipal services = agenda. The increasingly failed attempts to concentrate our government into a top-down system (as opposed to local governments with local people in control) drove a solution that was contrived at the top.
It started by the Governor changing tax laws and throwing municipalities into a frenzy that included misunderstandings and dramatically increased tax rates for property owners, who became angry (as expected). Along came the same Administration to help by offering tax caps as a solution to the problem that they had caused – and all of the folks who were so upset were suddenly so happy.
Strangely enough, there was also a new media focus that began nitpicking at local governments (often with excellent reason). But the vocal media critics were not only exposing injustices in municipal governments, they were consistently framing those injustices with costs and with a need to consolidate. How fortunate for the Governor.
So what ends up happening? The people are stirred up into disliking the fact that they have an opportunity for local representation. The people are convinced that as a result of lower tax revenue and local mismanagement, consolidation of power is healthy and good. And ultimately, the long-planned strategy to remove our local voices and dismantle our system of local representation is successful.
If nothing else, this is certain evidence revealing that history repeats itself, and that these who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. Good luck as we move forward, folks. Once this system is in place, we're all going to need it.
September 19th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Pray tell how, Shorebreak, history is repeating itself. With the exception of wholesale school consolidation from 1966-71, there is no history whatsoever of Indiana governmental units down-sizing.
And there is no history of the property tax system reinventing itself, either.
But it doesn't take evidence to understand that our township system is antiquate,d at best. (This is where Wilson inserts the line that townships only cost ____cents per $100 of AV).
(And whatever that figure is, it's five times too much)
Shore, this isn't about government top-down. It's about the lowest level of government trolling along like it did in 1840. But it's not 1840. We don't need township government. In every Indiana county, there are locally-elected officials “close to the people” whose offices could take over most of these services.
Townships will go away. Hoarding money, like they are in Washington Township, will not fly ultimately. THey're hoarding it to dole out to friendly projects and causes.
And that nutcase in Wayne needs defeated in the May primary. My sense is, that will happen.