Essay # 7

Roadmap to Reconstruction

I have proposed substantial changes to the structure of local government in Indiana.  Serious problems require serious solutions.  Challenge of this magnitude demands courage and determination.  Most, if not all of the changes I propose will alter the structure of local government as set forth in our State Constitution.  You can’t just change it or make it go away without following established procedure.  That procedure will undoubtedly require a State Constitutional convention.  I don’t think our Governor and State legislature have the power to change the State’s Constitution without the expressed consent of our citizens.  Expressed consent of our citizens will come in the form of an affirmative vote of an assembly of delegates from our 92 counties gathered in our State Capitol.  The changes will reflect the reconstruction of local government.

So what would the roadmap to reconstruction look like?  While I am uncertain of the order (and the order will be critically important), I envision a process which includes the following:

1.) A constitutional convention ordered by our Governor and State legislature.

2.) An election of delegates to a State Constitutional convention.  Ballots would include the names of those willing to serve as delegates representing their county.  The number of delegates for each county would be a function of population.

3.) A formal, written proposal for changes to our State Constitution supported by a series of essays rivaling the Federalist Papers.

4.) A Constitutional convention that would include a host of hearings and committee meetings addressing each element of the proposed changes to our State Constitution.

5.) An affirmative vote by the delegates on the proposed changes to our State Constitution.

6.) Ratification by our State Legislature (House and Senate) to the changes approved by delegates at our State Constitutional convention.

7.) Our Governor’s signature to make the changes law.

The process is daunting which explains why so many experienced, knowledgeable and learned colleagues of mine are skeptical about the prospects for success.  Folks are encouraging and polite when discussing my proposal, but I sense their reservation and dismissal.

Change is absolutely necessary.  Given our tax burden we need to reconsider the way we’re doing things.  The technique of swapping one tax for another will realistically contribute to a solution, but lasting improvement is impossible if we fail to downsize and streamline local government.  Local government has become too big, too complex, too confusing and too expensive.  It’s difficult to make the case that we’re exacting value from every taxpayer dollar.  We’ve contributed to the evolution of local government which we no longer comprehend and can no longer withstand or afford.

If we don’t owe it to our forefathers, if we don’t owe it to ourselves, then we owe it to our posterity to at least make an attempt.  191 years ago Hoosiers demonstrated the courage and responsibility to create our great State and form our government, why would we resist following in their footsteps to improve what they created for us?

When something is wrong, those who have the capacity, have the responsibility to offer their time, talents and treasure to make things right!

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address