Inside INdiana Business is reporting that a bill that would’ve culled one-third of the townships in the state did not receive a vote on a key deadline day. House Bill 1005, designed to consolidate townships with populations below 1,200, was not called to vote Monday, the final day it could have been heard for third reading in the House. The issue of township consolidation is one of the Indiana Chamber’s legislative priorities.
In a message on Twitter, Chamber Chief Executive Officer Kevin Brinegar voiced his displeasure with the General Assembly:
HB 1005, merging the smallest townships, is dead.
Our CEO Kevin Brinegar: “Regrettably, @INHouseGOP decided to kill its own priority bill (& ours) on township reform. They chose the status quo & keeping a system from the 1800s instead of modernizing local government services.”
The state has more than 1,000 townships within its 92 counties that range in size — according to the state’s public data utility STATS Indiana — from Wabash Township in Gibson County with a 2015 population of 30 to North Township in Lake County with 157,105.