Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 December 1938 — Page 37
Fourth Section
c In 1anapo is
Fourth Section
MAYORS BRAND HOOSIER LAWS AS ‘OBSOLETE
Municipal League Launches Drive for Home Rule, Redistributed Taxes.
Branding State laws by which governmental units are operated as “archaic,” the legislative committee of the Indiana Municipal League today opened its campaign to seek amendatory legislation to bring “home rule” to more than 400 Hoosier municipalities. The committee, which met here yesterday, announced it. would demand the following legislative changes when the General Assembly meets next month: 1. Revision in the distribution of State-collected taxes to civil city governments. . 2. Repeal of the Municipal Utility Tax Law, which the committee claims hampers cities in purchasing ‘utilities. 3. Repeal of legislation empowering the State Tax Board to regulate municipal budget structures.
Hamstringing Charged
Emphasizing the determination of the League to fight for greater municipal autonomy, W. Vincent Youckey, Mayor of Crown Point, league executive secretary, said: “Municipal operations in this State are hamstrung by obsolete laws, which have taken our powers from us. Unless we amend those laws, our cities will decline. “The way we are operating now, it is either a question of centralizing govgrnment to the point where we abolish independent city and town administrations or get enough money to run our cities adequately.” Mr. Youckey said that the league,
fees. This amount, totaling about $3,964,000, was distributed to more than 400 governmental units, where 65 per cent of the State’s population lives. “We demand a larger share of those taxes to finance our municipal operation in the face of decreasing property values and resulting higher tax rates.” Legislative committee members who attended yesterday’s meeting were Mr. Youckey, Mayor William H. Dress of Evansville, Mayor Alban
in demanding changes in the present ‘M. Smith of La Porte, League pres-
set-up of state-collected tax distributions, was seeking “a more equitable apportionment of these taxes to municipalities on the basis of which they were collected.”
Paid 60 Millions
“Civil cities and towns,” he said, “received back less than four million dollars from these taxes but they pay more than 60 million dollars. “Last year, we paid out $22,339,000 in gross income taxes, $31,304,000 to the motor vehicle fund and about four million dollars in excise and license taxes. “In return, we got $2,646,000 from the motor vehicle fund and $1,318,-
ident; Mayor Henry S. Murray of Bedford, Cul. Louis L. Roberts, corporation counsel, Evansville, and James S. McCarthy, city attorney, Whiting. Public Service Act Hit Col. Roberts assailed the Public Service Act as ‘a piece of legislation which makes it almost impossible for a city to acquire a utility by purchase, although. it was enacted to give us the power to do just that.” “There is a trend in our municipalities toward municipal ownership of utilities,” he said. “This trend is being set back by the present law, which has tied us up for years.
000 from excise taxes and license
“We are also fighting to have the
law under which municipally-owned utilities are taxed repealed, as a greater incentive toward public ownership of utilities.” In addition to these legislative changes, the committee said it would ask a revision of state, laws which “empower the State Tax Board to act as guardian over the finances of
‘local units of government.”
Future Meetings Planned
Mayor Dress said that the City of Evansviile had experienced difficulty in allocating its funds “because every time we wanted to make a transfer, we had to appear before the Board, which was hardly concerned with the specific problem we hdd on hand.” The committee will hold future meetings to develop its method of advancing its program further, Mayor Youckey said. He said the League, in pressing its demands in the Legislature, would be neither a pressure group nor a lobby. “We're acting through our legislative committee on all amendatory legislation we hope to put through this year,” he said. How the committee would work was not disclosed. Col. Roberts said that present
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1938
|
Municipal League's legislative committee, Mayor Alben Smith, La Porte (center), and Col. Louis L. Robert,
Mayor William H. Dress of Evansville (left) chats informally with two other members of the Indiana City Attorney, Evansville, during a lull in the conference session.
state laws governing the operations of cities were “enacted in an era of free gravel roads and rubber tired buggies.” “At that time,” he said, “municipal operation was comparatively simple. The city government kept law and order and the streets paved and provided adequate sanitation. “Now, our people are demanding more and more diversified service, and we are hamstrung by antiguated state laws.”
GIVEN RECOGNITION AT NORTHWESTERN
Times Special EVANSTON, Ill, Dec. 9.—Louise Trimble, 3755 Washington Blvd, Indianapolis, was one of eight students at Northwestern University to be elected a member of Phi Iota Sigma, national honorary fraternity for students in romance languages, it was announced today. Another Indianapolis student, William Barr, 3965 Carrollton Ave. was named member of the staff of the Daily Northwestern, campus newspaper. :
-«auguralitaking an active pa ins, facultyimg : 7 wing university, ine
> ; el. Officials On Stage. [ha receiv.
On the stage, in addition to those
isitors,
\ Werg/'the b ~.Jf iges Bighes,
having his in the cere-|{Was time-i eon in the later, a public .
_ “Indiana municipalities are hamstrung by archaic legislation,” Col. Robert told Mayor Youckey of Crown Point (left) and James McCarthy,
Claypool Hotel yesterday.
1904 VALEDICTORIAN BURIED BY FRIENDS
DETROIT, Dec. 9 (U. P.).—Men
City Officials Hear Charges of Legislative ‘Hamstringing’
Class Matter anapolis Ind.
Entered as Secon at Postoffice. In
Times Photos. W. Vincent
Whiting (right). The conference was held in the
1904 when he was called valedic-jalcoholism. His body lay unclaimed torian of the graduating class that|at the morgue. Then the men who year from the Detroit College of knew him in better days learned of Law came forward today to save him|his death and of plans to bury him
from the potter’s field.
in a pauper’s grave. They held a fu-
Mr. Dwight, a brilliant scholar a|neral for him and arranged for bur-
PAGE 37 |
G.0.P.NAMES 3 T0 COMMITTEE
Legislative Steering Group Is Completed for ’39 Assembly.
Personnel of the Republican lege islative steering committee had been completed today with the appointe ment of three State G. O. P, Come mittee representatives to the group. The State committee members are Morrison Rockhill, Warsaw, Second District chairman; Mrs, Esther Bray, Martinsville, Seventh District vice chairman, and George F. Dick= mann, Greenfield, 11th District chairman. son Appointment of members repre senting the House and Senate was announced yesterday. The House members are Reps. Elam Y. Guern=sey of Bedfcrd, Roy J. Harrison of Attica, and Howard R. Hiestand of Kentland. Senators of the steering committee are Lawrence E. Carlson of Huntington, Howard V. Johnson of Mooresville and Thurman A, Biddinger of Marion. In addition, the committee will have as ex-officio members William E. Jenner, Senate minority floor leader; O. Bruce Lane, Bridgeport, Senate caucus chairman; Rep. James M. Knapp, Hagerstown, G. O, P. choice for House speaker, and Rep. Herbert H. Evans, New Castle, G. O. P. House floor leader. State Chairman Arch N. Bobbitt, chairman of the steering committee, said the group will meet shortly before the legislative session opens
Jan. 5 to map legislative programs,
who knew Edwin L. Dwight back in'quarter of a century ago, died ofl!ial in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
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