ok everyone

we have a small group from both sides of the aisle, some with connections, some without. but all with unique perspectives on how government should be set up. so lets put our heads together and reorganize local and state govt to be more efficient, and maybe more cost effective.

heres a preview of mitch's upcoming plan http://nwi.com/articles/2008/12/17/updates/breaking_news/doc494978bd882f0739034181.txt
the gist of which is eliminating townships completly, and forcing school districts under 2000 to consolidate.

how do you feel about those, and what other, or different suggestions can we come up with.

Here's my proposal.

first. i would force the consolidation of many local library districts. say those that serve less than 50k people (although i'd have no problem enlarging that number. locally that would effect whiting, crown point, lowell, and east chicago. statewide it would actually force a combo amongst some various counties, so i could accept a provision excluding county library systems from that consolidation.

id also pressure cities statewide (locally ec and gary) to eliminate its health depts, and transportation depts. and turn over those responsibilities to the counties as well. however in porter and lake county's case transportation would actually be the rda's perview.

id put the school consolidation number at more like systems serving less than 1500 students. i mean in rural indiana, 2000 students could cover a several hundred square mile stretch in several areas of the state. but i do like the idea of eliminating extremely small school districts. besides improving financial efficiency, the smaller districts have a hard time offering a wide array of classes as well.

no problem with the township elimination. however i think the state needs to spell out who will pick up the slack. the county would have to assume the current township roll. and i dont have to tell you, locally that would be controversial. would the current cal township wind up sucking up all of the aid currently divied up by the various townships? could lake county dole out this aid without it turning into a political morass? lets face it. the only thing worse then the current township govt set up around here, is the lake county govt set up.

id force the consolidatation of all county surveyors offices, with the recorders, and clerks offices.

also the treasurer and auditors offices.

id streamline the connectivity between the county assessors offices and the state dlgf. the repeated delays because of various computer system incompatabilities and misunderstandings is inacceptable. the state needs to pick one system and force all counties to comply. the state wont do that though because they like blaming the locals every time something goes wrong.

locally. lake county needs to go from its current 4 county court system to 2. the one in crown point and 1 building in northern lake county. but again. the commissioners love each having the extra buildings to themselves. so dont look for that to happen anytime soon.

well that's a starting point anyway.

The school consolidation I have to think needs to be addressed based on not only school size, but proximity as well.

I think it would be unfair to make kids get bused to a school that may be 20 miles away, when right now they may live 2 miles from a school that would be closed because it doesn't have 2000 kids

Generally it all sounds pretty good in principle but I also have reservations about schools.