Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

PROPOSAL IN INDIANA
Shrinking local government unlikely here, officials say
Monday, December 17, 2007 3:01 AM
By Robert Vitale

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Taking a cue from the corporate world, Indiana is looking to downsize.

With more than 10,700 officeholders and 3,086 units of local government, from counties and cities down to the agencies that run libraries and landfills, ''few of us know where the buck stops.'' So concludes a just-issued report from a panel convened this year by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Among its recommendations: doing away with elected county sheriffs and commissioners, forcing small school districts to merge, and wiping township governments off the map.

It's a radical plan from a normally conservative state, and the possibility of passage is uncertain given the potential for 10,700 opponents whose turf is at risk.

The possibility of such reform sweeping into Ohio is even smaller, officials here say, despite the fact our own bureaucracy dwarfs our neighbor's.

If Indiana local government is Ford, Ohio's is General Motors.

Ohioans elect 19,558 local officials. We have 3,764 units of government.

Key differences, though, such as Ohio voters getting final say on property-tax increases, keep local governments more accountable to the public on this side of the state line, some say.

''The people speak here, which is good,'' Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks said.

Gov. Ted Strickland has no downsizing on his agenda, spokesman Keith Dailey said.

But state Rep. Larry Wolpert, R-Hilliard, said he is considering legislation to study the issue. Ohioans' income isn't keeping up with local governments' rising cost, he said.

According to the Tax Foundation, a Washington research group, Ohio ranks 34th in residents' state-tax burden but shoots up to fifth when local taxes are added in.

''Ohio's tax problem is really the local governments' tax problem,'' Wolpert said.

In Indiana, an uproar over rising property taxes has fed the call for reform. Homeowners in Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, saw their bills jump 35 percent on average this year. Summer protests drew thousands.

The Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, which subtitled its report ''We've Got to Stop Governing Like This,'' concluded that a pre-Civil War system has produced an expensive, redundant and cumbersome bureaucracy from counties on down.

Its 27 recommendations include replacing county commissioners with one elected executive who would appoint sheriffs, coroners, auditors and others now chosen by voters. Like Ohio, counties in Indiana have three elected commissioners, but they share power with seven-member county councils.

The panel also suggested a 2,000-student minimum for school districts, which would force more than half to merge. More than half of Ohio's 614 school districts are below that enrollment as well.

Townships, which overlap with municipalities in Indiana, would be dismantled. Their duties would be taken over by county governments.

Michael Cochran, executive director of the Ohio Township Association, calls the idea ''extremely shortsighted, really off-the-wall.''

''Those governments that are closer to the people are more efficient and more effective,'' he said.

In Ohio, officials have talked more often about cooperation than consolidation. Columbus Councilwoman Charleta B. Tavares has pressed city officials to consider office-sharing arrangements with county and suburban counterparts when they've approached the City Council with building plans.



By Overlap

Bring it on!!

I think this proposal or study shows merit. The current system has been in place since the civil war and with new technologies I am sure things could be done much more efficiently.

Wiping out the township governments would not be a bad thing and would have very little effect on the quality of life for any of us. Currently the Townships are heavily subsidized by the county and they must report and get approval from the county for most of operations they do. Removing those township staffs all over the county would save us all big bucks.

As for the fire departments, I am sure fire districts could be set up within the counties to provide fire services to the remote areas of the county and those small villages with populations under 5,000 would have the options to opt out of fire service if they choose to do so. I think consolidating these departments would save us all in property taxes. Obviously cities over 5,000 populations could do as they currently do and that is to create their own fire service if they desired to do so.

With an appointed Sheriff the county could provide police protection to the rest of the county. Currently Violet Township is a limited Home Rule Township still using the Fairfield County Sheriff?’s office for that protection.

While we are at it conform the boundaries of the school districts to the county boundaries and create county schools and city schools districts. Here again those cities under 5,000 population would attend county schools. Cities would then have the option to create there own district or not.

If the taxing districts were removed from under the cities so they were not paying double for services they never receive I think a lot of local tax dollars could be saved. I think also if the county was able to then impose a small income tax (up to 1%) on the county residents for services then they could give needed relief on the county property tax levies.

In turn if the cities were allowed to then impose sales taxes within their city limits then the levels of revenue would be equaled and I suspect much of our local tax duplication would be eliminated and money would be saved. I know there are those that think they get good service from the township in snow removal and other services but I also see many county trucks plowing our local roads during snow storms and I see our sheriff enforcing the law why not eliminate the township offices?

If we look at the overlapping boundaries we currently have here in the state and in our county I think taking a hard look at the school districts and how they are organized would be a good thing for our state taxpayers. When cities annex then they should take on the responsibility of the education in the newly annexed districts.

We currently have a system of those that control the land use and control the growth are not held responsible for providing the education to the children and new students created by this new growth. Make it mandatory that before they can approve new residential subdivisions they must prove and should provide a plan that they have the facilities to education any new students brought into their district.