Rural voices unheard at Statehouse

Years ago, Larry Macklin noted that the biggest areas of division in the Indiana General Assembly aren’t between Republicans and Democrats but between rural and urban lawmakers.
Macklin, a moderate Democrat from Decatur, was serving in the Indiana Senate at the time.
But his observation was a shrewd one, regardless of political party or house of the legislature.
Over time, the truth of Macklin’s insight has only grown, so that today it’s possible for lifelong Republicans serving in local government to feel as if their most worrisome adversary is their fellow Republicans at the state level.
What’s happened is that Indianapolis-centric Republicans have come to dominate their party’s leadership, while the Democrats have been so rudderless as to pretty much make themselves irrelevant.
And then there’s been the central role of Gov. Mitch Daniels, who for all of his rhetoric about reform, has essentially pursued an agenda that is all about the concentration of power.
The traditional, conservative notion that the government that governs best is the one that’s closest to home has been replaced by a belief that the state — at least as embodied by the current administration — knows best.
On issue after issue, the pattern is the same.
•In the name of property tax reform, the bulk of school funding moves to the state level; and as it does, the power to shape public education moves with it.
•Local governments find themselves fiscally constrained, unable to provide local services their constituents want and need.
•The entire realm of decision-making for everything from school boards to library boards to county councils has been constricted, shifting more authority to the state capital.
•Local economic development organizations that have charted courses deemed best for their own communities are being undercut by a philosophy predicated on the notion that the state should call the shots.
And the trend is only going to get worse.
That’s because, despite the disparity between rural and urban agendas, rural communities don’t have an effective voice.
Rural Republicans in the legislature far too often simply follow the top-down line from the governor’s office.
Urban Democrats have agendas of their own, which don’t mesh at all with rural concerns.
And those folks who would like to see more “home rule” when it comes to schools and courthouses, those folks who believe it’s possible to have an equitable property tax system that provides a stable revenue stream for the delivery of needed government services, those folks who don’t believe all the best decisions — whether the issue is CAFOs, collective bargaining, or economic development — are made in Indy, well, those are the folks who are left out in the cold. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]