Jennifer Whitson, for the Courier Press reports that Speaker Bosma has appointed Rep. Phil Hinkle (R-Indianapolis) and Rep. Jim Buck (R-Kokomo) to lead a group that will study and possibly make recommendations for a general framework that would allow “local communities could develop a consolidation plan and then put it before residents in the form of a voter referendum.”
Asked if an open setup, where every county could propose a different form of unified government would lead to confusion, Hinkle said he didn’t think it would turn out that way.
He said the Legislature has to allow for the diversity of needs that counties have and that he thinks three or four forms of local government structure would eventually emerge.
Representative Hinkle is chairman of the Local Government Efficiency and Financing Study Commission which issued its Final Report (pdf) on November 1. With respect to consolidation, the Commission looked at efforts underway in Allen and Vanderburgh Counties. The Commission made the following recommendation:
The Commission commends the public officials in the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County, the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Unification Study Committee, and others who are leading the consolidation effort for their hard work. The Commission urges the General Assembly to separately consider any consolidation legislation affecting governments in Allen County or Vanderburgh County so that each proposal may succeed or fail on its own merits.
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