About townships

The message that Hoosiers sent to their legislators Nov. 4 was unambiguous: We are ready to streamline local government in Indiana, cut waste and inefficiency, save money and have our tax dollars pay for services, not bureaucracy.

That message came via referenda held in 43 townships across the state, where voters could decide if they wanted to shift property-assessing duties from the township assessor to the county assessor. Voters in 30 townships – 70 percent of those with a referendum – said, loudly and clearly, “yes.”

Those townships join Indiana’s 965 other townships, where property-assessing duties already had been shifted by the 2008 General Assembly. Lawmakers chose, however, to let the voters in the state’s 43 largest townships – those with 15,000 or more property parcels – to decide if they wanted to follow suit. The question appeared on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Now, only 13 townships in eight counties retain a township assessor. This undermines the effort to standardize property assessments and jeopardizes fair taxation for all taxpayers in those counties.

But the work of MySmartgov.org and like-minded individuals and organizations, has only begun. Armed with Hoosiers’ resounding call for reform, we’re eager to go before the 2009 General Assembly to ask lawmakers to adopt more measures to streamline local government. We support the recommendations made by the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, commonly called the Kernan-Shepard Commission.

We need your help now more than ever. Legislators listen to their constituents. E-mails and phone messages carry a lot of weight.

So join our Grassroots Action Center to receive regular updates about the progress of our reform efforts in the General Assembly. We’ll let you know when it’s time to contact your legislators so you can ask for their support, thank them for voting for streamlined government or, if they vote the wrong way, urge them to rethink the issue. We’ll make it easy for you to send e-mail messages directly to them. 

It’s easy, and it’s smart. Join us.

Here’s how the townships voted: