An excerpt of an editorial by Mike Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University:
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More than a little criticism of the administration is warranted. But most of the loudest protests come from folks who have no room for complaint, having fought tooth and nail against any modernization of Indiana’s local government.
The $206 million in late payments is about half the total tax revenue our state’s woefully mismanaged townships kept sitting in the bank over the past several years. At a time poverty rates grew sharply, townships banked funds that could have been used for poor relief. At a time local governments with actual responsibilities struggled to make ends meet, our unneeded township governments collected interest on a huge windfall of tax dollars. That is planned mismanagement, not a software glitch.
Moreover, in 2007, the bipartisan Kernan-Shepard Commission recommended some easily implemented changes to Indiana’s local government that would have dragged the state into the modern times of the late 19th century. According to my estimates, consolidation would save local governments more than $630 million annually.
The reform of local government and loss of this patronage was such a fearsome prospect in the Legislature that it outweighed the opposition to every other policy step of the past five years.
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http://www.ibj.com/hicks--accounting-mistakes-and-local-government-reform/PARAMS/article/33813
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