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Last updated on Monday, December 10, 2007
(STATEHOUSE) - A blue-ribbon commission on making local government more efficient will announce its recommendations Tuesday morning.
Legislative leaders say they have no inkling what the report will contain, but the panel chaired by former Governor Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard has offered one hint of its conclusions: its report is subtitled, "We've Got To Stop Governing Like This."
There's widespread speculation the panel will call for reducing or abolishing township government. Governor Daniels has already called for getting rid of township assessors, and the Senate has begun committee hearings on the idea.
House Speaker Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend) wonders if the report might go farther. With Daniels proposing that the state take over school funding, Bauer says the commission might call for eliminating some Indiana school boards.
Bauer and other leaders agree the report will set the debate over government reform, but won't carry so much weight that legislators embrace it unquestioningly.
Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Chairman Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) says with the intense focus on property taxes, government restructuring might not be enacted until 2009 or later.
But Kenley says the report may influence the shape of a tax-relief package. He says the final product might make a streamlined local government structure a more attractive option.
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