Government Reform Legislation Diluted

Senators who are more concerned about protecting political fiefdoms than saving the taxpayers money ruled the day yesterday. Three key changes were made to the bill, which contains many of the recommendations of the Kernan-Shepard Commission to streamline local government. The Star's Mary Beth Schneider identifies these changes the Senate made:

• Township assessors would remain in place in 44 townships in Indiana, including all nine in Marion County.
• Marion County's small claims courts would remain intact, rather than being merged into the county's Superior Court system.
• County commissioners -- who would have been eliminated and replaced with a single county executive -- will remain in place unless voters choose to change their county government in a countywide referendum in 2010.

As if to insult our intelligence, Sen. Lawson argued that it was important to preserve township assessors in the larger townships, including all of Marion County's nine township assessors, because the county assessors would be overwhelmed by too much work. Her original amendment would have omitted Decatur Township, but Sen. Mike Young took care of that with another amendment. These people simply do not get it. Throwing them out of office is the only solution to arriving at real change in this state. By the time we get to the end of the session, these lawmakers will have the government reform bills watered down so much that you may as well just flush it down the tiolet. That's about how much it will be worth.