If Approved Jackson & Scott Counties Will Be Affected
by: Tom Davies
Indiana Capital Chronicle
Legislators might have coalesced around a plan for consolidating perhaps hundreds of Indiana’s 1,000+ township governments.
An Indiana House committee last Tuesday endorsed a melding of differing Senate and House bills that supporters said will improve local government efficiency.
The new version of Senate Bill 270 would require townships with low performance evaluations to merge with other townships. The plan would also let city governments take over the township functions when the township is located mostly within the city limits.
Townships taking steps toward mergers under current state law by June 30, 2027, would be exempt from the proposed new procedure that would then begin. It would start the process for mergers taking effect Jan. 1, 2029— a year later than previously proposed.
Bill author Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, said the delay would give townships facing required consolidations time to make their own merger decisions.
“They can do local meetings back home, decide what township, maybe, they want to merge with, see where they want to go,” Niemeyer told the committee. “I think that’s going to happen a lot. I hope it happens a lot.”
The Indiana Township Association had favored Niemeyer’s approach that based merger requirements upon a points system evaluating township functions. The group opposed the process in House Bill 1315 that required mergers based on population, budget and geography.
Andrew Durham, the association’s associate director, told the Capital Chronicle that it supported the compromise version.
“Our stance has always been about looking at the efficiencies of the units first before making any determination on whatever the reform may be,” said Durham, who is the Center Township trustee in Howard County.
Durham said preliminary estimates are that about 300 townships could face consolidations under the legislation endorsed Tuesday.
A legislative analysis of House Bill 1315, which the House approved earlier this month, estimated about 650 townships could be affected.
If it gains House approval, both the House and the Senate would have to agree on a final version before the legislative session’s scheduled Feb. 27 adjournment.
Indiana’s township officials have long argued for the importance of the services they provide. That work includes providing emergency aid for expenses such as utilities and housing to low-income residents, with some townships also operating fire departments or parks and maintaining old cemeteries.
Critics believe the township system dating to the 1800’s is inefficient and that those functions could be better operated by cities or counties. But numerous attempts in the Legislature for major reorganization of Indiana’s townships have failed— dating back to a 2007 push by then Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Provisions of the current bill set up an evaluation process overseen by the state’s Department of Local Government Finance.
The bill specifies that townships would accumulate points based upon factors such as whether it provides emergency aid, operates a fire department or emergency medical services agency, files financial reports on a timely basis and has had candidates in recent township trustee elections.
The more points a township receives the more likely it would be forced to merge.
Among those townships facing mergers, their functions could be taken over by a city or town if at least 80% of its territory and more than half of its population are within the municipality’s limits.
Such a consolidation plan could impact Jennings and Vienna Townships in Scott County. Brownstown and Jackson townships could be impacted in Jackson County since they have the two largest municipalities.
Vernon Township could be targeted due to population, According to 2024 census statistics, the township population is 3,406 of which the town of Crothersville population is 1,725; right at the 50% mark.
No township in Jackson County is responsible for fire protection as financing those services are handled by nine fire protection districts. Depending on the final wording of the legislation, that could mean all townships in Jackson County could be eligible for volunteer or mandated consolidation.