A distressing trend has taken shape in the General Assembly over recent years. State lawmakers are passing laws with insufficient consultation with local government leaders and scant thought to how those laws will ultimately affect cities, towns and neighborhoods.
But an initiative by the Indiana Conference of Mayors seeks to encourage state lawmakers to be more responsive to local interests and more focused on the priorities of local government.
The nonpartisan Conference of Mayors started its “Trust Local” campaign in November to get the attention of state legislators by raising awareness of the need for the legislature to pay more attention to local government concerns.
The needs of cities and towns too often don’t get the airing that they should within the Indiana legislature. The property tax caps, now enshrined in the state constitution, are one of the most egregious examples of legislation state lawmakers passed without thought to local government needs. Municipal leaders were left with few good options for replacing the lost revenue that pays for crucial government services.
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There is widespread agreement that both state and local government need more revenue for road repairs. The Conference of Mayors has reasonably proposed making sure gas-tax revenue is used for its intended purpose: Paying for road repairs and street improvements. Over the years state lawmakers have rerouted money from the Motor Vehicle Highway fund, which was intended to go back to cities to pay for road repair projects, to pay for operating the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
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With local government, the adage about there being no Republican or Democratic way of filling a pothole prevails. State lawmakers have allowed partisanship and political wrangling to get in the way of solving problems.
“Sometimes state legislators bring their personal battles to Indianapolis, and when that happens, you end up making statewide legislation that detrimentally impacts people at the local level,” Stahura said.
