The town of Sheridan and Adams Township are looking to merge—a move that would give Sheridan planning and zoning control over an area that is currently unincorporated and is the jurisdiction of county planners.
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Numerous attempts in the Legislature for major reorganization of Indiana’s 1,008 townships have failed—dating back to a 2007 report on local government reform headed by former Gov. Joe Kernan and then-Chief Justice Randall Shepard.
The January report by poverty- and homelessness-focused service providers, titled “Marion County Township Trustees: Opportunities Seized; Opportunities Missed,” is the result of a yearlong investigation.
Indiana’s 1,000-plus townships have largely survived nearly three-dozen legislative attempts to reorganize or extinguish them since 2004—and they’re hoping to deter future tries with a report that attempts to substantiate their value.
Dozens of bills are already advancing through committees and legislative chambers halfway through the third week of Indiana’s 2023 session.
The merged township is the first in the state, serving 29,885 residents and 12,185 households.
The plan would have required consolidation by townships with fewer than 1,200 residents.
Hundreds of Indiana’s least-populated townships face forced mergers with their neighbors in what would be the most significant overhaul of the local governments since a gubernatorial commission called for their elimination a decade ago.
The distribution is part of $505 million that county auditors have distributed to local government units statewide, $435 million of which can be used for transportation funding.
The communities have urged the state Supreme Court to hear Whitestown’s appeal of a controversial merger between Zionsville and Perry Township.
The hotly disputed annexation can go ahead, unless residents want to take the case to the Indiana Supreme Court. The acreage is a small portion of the township land that Zionsville is in the process of taking over.
The battle between the two towns over Perry Township has heated up, with Whitestown demanding that Zionsville roll back moves it made in response to an Indiana Court of Appeals decision this week.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Baker has sentenced former Center Township CFO Alan Mizen to 18 months in prison for stealing more than $340,000 in public funds.
The former Center Township accountant who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $340,000 also should pay the cost of investigating his wrongdoing, the Indiana State Board of Accounts says.
Center Township registered a police plate to a 2011 Dodge Charger driven by Trustee Eugene Akers, then used the plate for three years after the BMV declared it invalid.
U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett has scheduled a Tuesday afternoon press conference to announce the arrest of a former public official from the Center Township Trustee’s Office.
Marion County criminal-justice complex project could rival Indianapolis airport terminal in cost, entail public-private financing deal.
Economists and politicians on both sides of the aisle have argued for years that streamlining government in Indiana could save millions of dollars, but vested interests and fear of change have stymied real reform.
City-County Council Democrats are pitching a 2014 budget alternative that would close an $8-million gap left by the majority party's refusal to go along with Mayor Greg Ballard on eliminating the homestead tax credit.
The township board in late May gave Trustee Eugene Akers permission to list the property, which has a five-story office building on 1-1/3 acres of land.
A former secretary in the Pike Township trustee’s office could face criminal charges after an internal investigation and state audit found that she used a township credit card to fill up her own gas tank.
