Coming soon to a meeting near you, the hard sell:
Those who plan a big legislative push to streamline local government say they know what's coming their way: a lot of shoving back.
[. . .]
The proposals include eliminating township governments and having one elected county chief executive who would appoint county officials now elected such as the sheriff, treasurer and auditor. School districts would be reorganized so they would have at least 2,000 students.
The proposals would cut the number of elected officials in Indiana from more than 11,000 to about 5,100.
And it will be a tough sell. The fight will be between legislators and the local officials who will lose power, with the citizenry largely being indifferent or hostile. I've been writing about this for more than 20 years, and there never has been exactly a groundswell of public opinion: "We demand streamlined government!"
