Keeping track of townships and local government spending is a complicated, but necessary measure. That should now be a little easier thanks to some efforts of the Indiana Dept. of Local Government Finance and their new web site. The Tribune (Seymour) has the story via Indiana Economic Digest:

Hoosiers now have an opportunity to take a deeper look at how local governing units collect and spend their money thanks to a new website recently unveiled by the state.

And Jackson County seems to be faring better that (sic) a lot of Indiana counties, a local official says.

“We look really good,” county Councilman Brian Thompson told his fellow council members during their recent meeting at the courthouse annex.

Thompson was basing that assessment on information located on the web at https://gateway.ifionline.org/ …

The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance unveiled the website developed in cooperation with the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in mid-November.

According to a press release from the DLGF, the website is the second phase of a new online data collection system and public access website that “substantially increases the transparency and accessibility of local government finance” for Hoosiers.

The first phase of the system, known as the Indiana Gateway for Government Units or Gateway for short, allowed local officials to submit 2012 budget forms electronically from July 1 to Nov. 3.

As part of the second phase, those budget figures are now incorporated into the interactive research website. Visitors to the site can compare against other units and analyze per capita revenues and spending.

The public site allows taxpayers to access relevant data by property address, view up-to-the-minute budget summary information and download customizable reports.

“Once Gateway is fully implemented, with a few mouse clicks, citizens can obtain local government budgets, property tax information, debt tallies, and spending reports,” Department Commissioner Brian Bailey said.

Local officials also will use Gateway to submit annual reports to the state Board of Accounts, allowing users to tie budget information to expenditure information easily for the first time.

They also will report debt information through Gateway, providing taxpayers with information about borrowing costs and overall indebtedness. This data, which local officials must submit by March 1, will be made available through the public access website this spring.

“By linking local government finance to the other data hosted on Stats Indiana, policy makers and businesses will have information at their fingertips to help them make fiscal decisions in the context of their overall community, or communities they may consider joining,” IBRC Deputy Director and Chief Information Officer Carol Rogers said.

The Indiana Chamber and MySmartGov have been champions of sensible government reform in Indiana, and have supported suggestions from the Kernan-Shepard Report that would eliminate townships, among other excesses. The Evansville Courier & Press now reports Governor Mitch Daniels will firmly put his weight behind these measures in the 2012 session:

Gov. Mitch Daniels will make one last push for local government reforms – this time, a select and scaled-back set of them – during the final legislative session of his administration, he announced Friday.

Daniels unveiled his legislative agenda for the Indiana General Assembly’s 10-week 2012 session, which starts Jan. 4, during a speech at the Kiwanis Club of Indianapolis.

He said he will lobby for structural changes at both the township and county levels, as well a crackdown on conflicts of interest among municipal workers who also sit on the elected bodies that set the budgets for their employers.

It’s another try at implementing more of the recommendations offered in 2007 by a blue-ribbon panel chaired by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard.

This year, as freshman Rep. Kevin Mahan, R-Hartford City takes over the chairmanship of the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee, Daniels said he believes the conditions are right for more progress than he has made in the past.

“We’re going to try to approach it in a little simpler way,” Daniels said.

He said he hopes four local government changes that have stalled out in previous sessions can gain more traction this year. Those four are:

- Allowing counties to switch their executive structure from three-member groups of commissioners to a single county commissioner.

- Abolishing three-member township advisory boards that oversee township trustees’ budgets and bumping their fiscal oversight duties up to county councils.

- Eliminating nepotism – that is, the ability for local elected officials to hire their relatives to do the area’s work.

- Restricting “conflicts of interest,” or situations where those who are paid by local government, such as police, firefighters, park employees and more, also serve on the councils that set their budgets.

“I think if we could get action on two, three, four fronts like those, this would be good. Those are some important reforms. I’ve always believed that we wouldn’t do this in one or two big gulps; it would have to be an incremental process, and this would get the process moving forward,” he said.

This story is unfortunate, and I genuinely feel bad for the trustee who lost this money – and was subsequently ambushed at her home by a news crew. But a mistake was made — and it was a big one. It just simply points to yet another instance of township government in Indiana not using taxpayer resources very effectively.

A township trustee who paid up front for a fire truck that never showed up is now facing scrutiny from the State Board of Accounts and the Indiana Attorney General’s Office.

Pamela Crum, the trustee of Sheffield Township in Tippecanoe County, wrote a check for $332,970 to Elite Fire Apparatus of Wisconsin, but the company went bankrupt shortly after, according to an audit by the State Board of Accounts.

"The result was, they were just out the money and they were going to get no fire truck, and, according to the bankruptcy court, there were no assets to distribute," said Paul Joyce, deputy state examiner for the State Board of Accounts.

Indiana code states that public officials should not pay for goods or services up front, unless it’s a recurring expense, such as rent, 6News’ Kara Kenney reported.

"You’re not supposed to pay for anything in advance," Joyce said. "That’s because you might not get the goods and services you purchased."

Joyce called Sheffield Township’s $332,970 check the worst case the agency had ever seen of a public official paying for something that didn’t show up.

In an effort to recoup the money on behalf of taxpayers, the attorney general’s office sent out letters to Crum, the former board members who approved the expenditure, as well as Ohio Farmers Insurance and National Fire & Casualty.

National Fire & Casualty has a $500,000 policy on the township, and Ohio Farmers Insurance has a $15,000 surety bond on the township trustee, according to the attorney general’s office.

If they don’t pay within 30 days, the attorney general’s office may file a lawsuit to recover the public funds.

"I’m not happy, not happy," said Linda Gregory, a longtime Sheffield Township taxpayer. "For a small town like this, it’s surprising."

Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar wraps up the 2011 Legislative Session. While frustrations included the House Democratic exodus and lack of township reforms, he labels the session "overwhelmingly satisfying" due to positive education reforms, tax cuts and immigration reform that was not as punitive to businesses as it could have been.

Yesterday’s blog post about two local government reform bills being defeated in the Senate was intended (like all communication efforts) to draw attention. After all, comprehensive reform — particularly at the township level — has been a top priority of the Chamber (and the governor) over the last four years.

The attention goal was achieved, at least in part, as there was an interpretation by some (including at least one state senator) that the analogy in the lead was directly comparing the defeat of these two bills to the magnitude of the House Democrat walkout. That was not the intention at all. The reference to the House dispute (one could be justified using much stronger terms) was simply to show that 99% of the media and public attention was focused on the House and that the actions of the Senate (both those we agreed with and did not support) were occurring "under the radar screen."

That’s the great thing about interpretations — everyone has their own. Now, you know mine in authoring this post.

Look up the definition of "currently under the radar screen," and you might find an image of the Indiana Senate. With House Democrats bolstering the Illinois economy, little to no attention is being paid to the other side of the third floor of the Statehouse.

But before wrapping up its first half of the session, senators managed to do their own harm by failing to pass two important local government reform measures. SB 405 (eliminating township boards) was defeated 28-21 and SB 303 (giving counties the option to go to a single county executive instead of three commissioners) went down 27-22.

What were they thinking? It’s been clearly demonstrated — over and over and over — that townships waste taxpayer dollars, fail to effectively provide basic services and are a relic of days gone by. Townships don’t work in Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne or the many less populous areas throughout the state.

Yet, some legislators in more rural districts made the case to their colleagues that, and I paraphrase, "our township folks are good people; it’s OK that they hire their relatives and so what if they break the rules every now and then and sit on money that could be used for schools, libraries and other local services."

As a colleague described it, politics and emotion won out over common sense. We expected more, much more, from our senators.

Lawmakers should have listened to two trustees (one former, one current) who had a clear message.

Let’s be clear: Carmel’s Palladium performing arts center is a good thing, adding to the quality of life for residents of the Hamilton County city and surrounding areas. A township trustee spending $10,000 in taxpayer money so he, township board members and their guests could enjoy the grand opening is the latest in a long line of reasons to do away with this outdated form of government.

The key phrase is "taxpayer money." Which makes the following comments all the more ridiculous. The trustee told WRTV-Channel 6, "From my standpoint, it was the right thing to do." The township board chairman adds, "We view this as supporting the arts in Carmel."

The Indianapolis Star editorial on Saturday stated in part:

Keep in mind that poor relief is one of the purported purposes of township government. But tuxedoed patron of the arts? Not on the official list of a township trustee’s duties.

(Trustee Douglas) Callahan, however, was unrepentant in an interview with The Star’s Chris Sikich. He even tried to argue that township officials have been picked on by powerful forces. "People are throwing us to the dogs constantly, from the (Indiana) Chamber of Commerce to the media to the governor’s office,” he said.

The state chamber, the governor and the editorial boards of 16 Indiana newspapers, along with dozens of other officials and organizations, have indeed been critical of township government. But their complaints aren’t so much with the people who fill township offices as with the system in which they operate. Even if every existing township official were to be replaced with people of impeccable judgment and integrity, the township system still would be antiquated, inefficient and unnecessary.

And although Callahan and the township board members exercised poor judgment in using tax dollars to buy tickets to a fancy celebration, the more significant outrage is that Indiana’s townships are collectively hoarding at least $295 million in public money while fewer people in need receive assistance.

Really, it’s time for reform. It won’t happen, however, unless Hoosiers speak up and demand it. Need more convincing. Check out MySmartGov. 

UPDATE: Upon advice of the Clay Township Attorney, who also happens to be House Speaker Brian Bosma, township officials have decided to do the right thing and return the $10,000 used on Palladium tickets.