Control freaks

The Indiana General Assembly's support for home rule waxes and wanes. I've noticed the same thing this session observed by political commentator Brian Howey -- it's been a horrible year for local control:

It goes far beyond the plea of cities for local taxing options in this era of crimping property tax caps.

Indiana's emerging "city council" at the Statehouse is poised to take away municipal rights when it comes to where weapons can be fired and carried, whether nursing homes can be built, whether fire districts can be established.

Another bill would keep cities from setting a higher minimum wage than what state and federal law requires and another would restrict how the Local Option Income Tax (LOIT) is used for public safety. The whole point of the LOIT is to give cities revenue options beyond property taxes.

"Just as the federal government should not dictate how states appropriate tax dollars, the state should not dictate how cities and towns spend their public safety dollars," says Matt Greller, executive director of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. "Every community has different needs and it should be up to the local officials and voters to determine what's best."

One measure not mentioned in the piece deals with school corporations rather than cities or counties. Lawmakers want small school districts to consoloidate, but it's a politically unopular idea that they don't want to take the heat for. So instead of honestly dictating the consolidations, they've come up with a version of the state budget that eliminates extra grants to districts with fewer than 500 students but gives extra money to those with at least 500 students. The districts will be starved into consolidation.

Pretty cowardly.