Government Reform

Indiana's system of local government was designed in the 1850s, with more than 3,200 units of government and 10,000 local officeholders. This was appropriate for an era of travel by horseback, but today it means inefficiency and little accountability for taxing and spending decisions. The current system creates a maze of competing bureaucracies that hinders economic development and wastes tax dollars.

CICP is a founding member of MySmartGov, a coalition of business, civic and labor groups focused on streamlining Indiana's bloated system of local government, focusing on the recommendations of the Indiana Commission for Local Government Reform co-chaired by former Governor Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard.

CICP and MySmartGov urge the Indiana General Assembly to begin taming out-of-control local government by enacting modest reforms like:

Eliminating township advisory boards while giving voters the opportunity to eliminate township trustees altogether and consolidate their duties within county government;

• Providing fiscal oversight of remaining township offices by their county councils;
• Providing an optional single county executive model for county government (by vote of county commissioners), taking politics out of administrative offices and improving accountability;
• Moving school board elections from Spring to Fall, and municipal elections to even-numbered, non-Presidential years - enhancing voter participation;
• Enacting common-sense local ethics reforms - addressing rampant nepotism and conflicts-of-interest;
• Enhancing transparency by establishing real penalties for failure to file required annual township financial reports with the State.

Education Workforce

Township Government in Indiana :

Contrary to Indiana's supposed affinity for smaller government, the state's taxpayers support thousands of local governments and pay for more than 10,000 officeholders - including more than a thousand township offices created in the mid-1800s.

Indiana's 1,008 townships spend around than $400 million a year, while holding more than $200 million in unused surpluses - overtaxing homeowners and businesses while the rest of local government is forced to cut services.