BLOOMIINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Two newspapers say that their investigations have found widespread patterns of inefficiency in the government of Indiana's 1,008 townships.
The reports Sunday in The Herald-Times of Bloomington and The Indianapolis Star come as Gov. Mitch Daniels continues pushing to eliminate townships as a layer of government.
The Herald-Times says 133 township trustees failed to comply with the new state law requiring them to file their annual reports electronically.
The newspaper says that 666 out of the 875 trustees who reported say they used township funds to pay somebody with the same last name, a sign of possible nepotism.
The Star says townships are accumulating money at a time of tight government budgets. It says they had $294 million at the end of 2009, compared with $207 million in 2007.
