Indiana gov. reform
In a lengthy post on “Local Government Reform,” Paul Musgrave explores problems and challenges facing local Indiana government. It concludes:
If Indiana’s government institutions permitted it, a thoroughgoing reform of local government would be in order. The division of local government functions into ninety-two counties is neither necessary nor desirable. Officials whose duties are largely administrative should not be elected, and in many cases their offices could be abolished and replaced by central or regional agencies at lower cost and tremendously greater productivity. But this will not happen, not because of Indiana’s inherent conservatism, but because of the interplay of groups with vested interests in the current system and the barriers to thoroughgoing reform inherent in the 1851 constitution and the division of political power between the executive and legislative branch.
