Most of the world is structured on the basis of geography. We have nations, states or provinces, cities, and a multitude of other geographic entities. More and more this configuration of society and government is changing.
Corporations are not geographic. They are nationwide and trans-national. The area code on your telephone is a legacy of a time gone by. Are our local governments legacies as well?
In Indiana, school districts are eroding in densely populated areas under the careful tutelage of the General Assembly. Since 1859, Indiana is divided in 92 counties. In 2020, 31 of those 92 counties had fewer than 25,000 residents each. Does the lack of population inhibit local governments from performing their necessary functions?
In 1900, 14 Indiana counties reached their peak number of residents. In none of the succeeding 12 decades did their population exceed that 1900 peak.
These 14 included Blackford and Crawford, Benton and Tipton, Clay and Jay. Pike lost more than 8,200 persons or 40% of its peak population.
If Benton and Warren were combined, they would have only 17,000 citizens. Put Fountain and Parke together and the combined population would be 32,600. Since they are all in a contiguous string, the total population for these four together would be just under 50,000 persons.
But, that population would be spread over 1,612 square miles. From Raub in the northwest of Benton Co. to Lena in the southeast of Parke Co. is 94 miles and 1:42 minutes according to Google. Service delivery systems (schools, fire, police, health and libraries) each require attention to the number of persons as well as the distances between them.
Could consolidation reduce the costs of delivering basic governmental services or improve the quality thereof? But that’s not likely to be the stumbling block.
If four counties were merged, would they be able to get along with fewer county commissioners and council members? Where would the county government be located? Perhaps a new level of government would be interjected with more of everything for everybody.
At the other extreme lies metropolitan Indianapolis (including only the contiguous counties, known as the donut) with 1.9 million persons (28% of the state’s population) accounting for 37% of the state’s population growth since 1900.
Here, from Thorntown (Boone Co.) in the northwest to St. Paul (Shelby Co.) in the southeast is 86 miles and 1:28 driving time. There is little intergovernmental cooperation, a lack of cohesion, and a hurley-burley, competitive desire to have more than thy neighbor.
Indiana has a population distribution problem. Centralization of a growing population accompanied by 53 of its 92 counties with populations lower than their earlier peaks.
In case you didn’t notice, there is no state legislative study group considering this issue. Let the chips (cow or otherwise) fall where they may.