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Monday, April 25, 2011
Ind. Gov't. - "Cities losing in legislature"
A must read editorial today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that begins:
Cities and towns needed some financial attention from Indiana lawmakers. What they got instead this year was the General Assembly acting as a Statehouse branch of their city councils. In the week ahead, they need lawmakers to remember their proper role.Officials with the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns have worked over past sessions to urge greater local control over finances. This session, however, they’ve struggled to keep legislators from stripping them of control over firearms, apartment inspections, local wages and more.
“It’s a fundamental shift in the way the General Assembly is acting,” said Matt Greller, IACT executive director. “They are acting more like a city council at the state level.”
The apartment inspection legislation, House Bill 1543, would prohibit local government from inspecting rental units unless there is probable cause of a code violation or the violation is in plain view. It would also prohibit local government from charging an inspection fee.
The bill’s sponsor is Indianapolis Republican Mike Speedy – a real estate developer.
The limits on guns regulations also limit local government authority. Speedy is the House sponsor of SB 292, which would prohibit local government units from regulating guns within their borders. Greller said IACT’s objection is to removing restrictions on the discharge of firearms.
A gun owner would be allowed to fire a weapon in his or her backyard with no regard for children playing on a swing set next door, Greller notes. The bill even gives gun owners the right to sue local government if a local measure restricts their gun rights.
At best, both bills are sorry examples of lawmakers trampling local government authority. At worst, they represent policy that endangers lives.
While lawmakers have been busy catering to powerful lobby groups and their own business interests, they’ve offered no help to local government in providing services threatened by property tax caps.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 25, 2011 08:35 AM
Posted to Indiana Government