Township trustees provide vital services to the citizens of Indiana effectively and efficiently. Providing these services on a countywide basis, which has been recommended by the Kernan-Shepard Commission, would not result in any savings to taxpayers and would make it more difficult for Hoosiers to obtain the assistance that they need.

Township trustees are primarily responsible for providing emergency township assistance, fire protection, and cemetery and park maintenance. In certain areas of the state, township officials provide other services to the community, including property tax assessment. They provide these important services at minimal cost to the taxpayers. Statewide, township government accounts for less than 3% of your property tax bill. 71% of township trustees make less than $10,000 a year, with many of them making less than $1,000 per year.

In addition to being good stewards of property tax dollars, trustees are also responsive to the needs of the community. Recognizing that emergencies occur at all hours of the day and night, trustees make themselves available to their constituents 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week for emergency assistance requests. It is highly unlikely that, under a

countywide system, such assistance will be available outside of normal business hours.

Proponents of a countywide system also argue that modern day transportation makes it easier for those needing assistance to travel to the county seat to meet with the appropriate agency. This assumes that everyone has access to reliable transportation, which is certainly not the case with many township assistance recipients. Trustees take the time to visit the homes of applicants that are not able to travel, allowing the trustee to better assess the needs of the applicant as well as his or her level of self sufficiency, thus weeding out potentially fraudulent applications.

The other major responsibility of township trustees is to provide fire protection in unincorporated areas of Indiana, either by operating a township fire department or by contracting with an outside department. In many cases, fire services are provided through a volunteer fire department operated by the township trustee. Volunteer departments, which provide service to 81% of the state, require the same certification and training as professional firefighters, offering a high level of service to Hoosiers at minimal cost.

The Kernan-Shepard Commission recommends that all public safety services, including fire, be administered at the county level with decisions made by a countywide body. Though a representative from each public safety unit in the county would be a member of the body, only the newly created county executive and the mayors from cities within the county would have voting authority. Residents in rural areas would have no voice in how public safety services are provided under such an arrangement.

This epitomizes that flaws that exist with the Kernan-Shepard recommendations, which have largely been endorsed by Governor Daniels. It mandates a one-size-fits-all approach to local government without taking into account the unique circumstances of individual communities in Indiana. Further, the recommendations transfer the decision making authority from locally elected officials to appointed bureaucrats, providing no evidence of any cost savings yet diminishing the citizens’ ability to hold their officials accountable.

The Indiana Township Association is not opposed to efforts to modernize or restructure Indiana’s local government system. Indeed, we have supported legislative efforts in the past that allow communities to make any necessary changes in how vital services are provided to the public. But the key components to these past efforts, and why we advocate for them as an alternative to the Kernan-Shepard recommendations, include the ability for each community to make these decisions on their own and the requirement that the public support the changes through a referendum.