Local government will likely see drastic changes soon, as Governor Mitch Daniels asked volunteers to serve on the blue ribbon Indiana Commission for Local Government Reform. Over the past several months these members have been working on examining and developing recommendations, and the commission members recently submitted 27 specific recommendations to streamline local government and reduce costs in their final report.

Of course, changes do not come without hardship, and the Commission acknowledges this. In fact, they say sweeping changes will not be easy and write in their report that their recommendations will be "disruptive, even painful, in the short run". Nonetheless, they also write "We've got to stop governing like this."

Some of their recommendations included:

*Establish a single-person elected county chief executive.

*Consolidate emergency public safety dispatch by county or multi-county region.

*Move the funding of child welfare from counties to the state.

*Reorganize school districts to achieve a minimum student population of 2,000.

*Reorganize library systems by county and provide permanent library service for all citizens.

*Prohibit employees of a local government unit from serving as elected officials within the same local government unit.

To learn more, you can read the entire report here:

http://indianalocalgovreform.iu.edu/assets/docs/Re...