Government of Indiana

The Government of Indiana is established and regulated by the Constitution of Indiana. The State level government consists of three branches, the judicial branch, the legislative branch, and the executive branch. The three branches balance share power and jointly govern the state of Indiana. County and local governments are also constitutional bodies.

Organization

The Government of Indiana sits in the state capitol of Indianapolis. Each of the three branches operate out of the Indiana Statehouse. The states maintains several office building that holds many of the state bureaus and departments. Most of the state's bureaus are located in the Indiana Government Center North, a high-rise tower in downtown Indianapolis.

Legislature

The Indiana General Assembly is the legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. The General Assembly meets annually at the Indiana State House in Indianapolis.

Members of the General Assembly are elected from districts that are realigned every ten years. Representatives serve two year and senators serve four year terms. Both houses must pass a bill before it cant be submitted to the governor and enacted into law.

Judiciary

The Supreme Court of Indiana is the highest judicial body in Indiana. The court oversees the lower courts and commissions that jointly make up the judicial branch. The other courts include the Indiana Tax Court, the Indiana Court of Appeals, and circuit and superior courts. The courts are assisted by several commissions that are also part of the judicial branch, including the Judicial Nominating Commission.

Executive

The Governor of Indiana is the chief executive officer of the government of Indiana. Elected to a four year term, the Governor is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of the state government. The governor is assisted by other officials elected to the executive branch including the Lieutenant Governor and the Attorney General.

Checks and balances

The Constitution of Indiana has several checks and balances built into it's clauses to prevent any one branch of the government from becoming dominant. The governor has the power to veto any bill passed by the General Assembly. The General Assembly has the power to override a veto with a super majority. The courts have the authority to declare laws unconstitutional and revoke them, while the General Assembly has the power to initiate an amendment to the constitution to override the decision of the courts. The courts judges are appointed by a a commission made of representatives of the governor and the courts, and their jurisdictions can be regulated by the General Assembly.

Administrative divisions

County Government

County governments are made up of two bodies.

County Council: A county council of between seven and fifteen members controls all spending and revenue of the county government. Four of the representatives elected from county districts, the other three representatives are elected at large. The council members serve four year terms. They are responsible for setting salaries, the annual budget, and special spending. The council also has limited authority to impose local taxes, usually in the form of an income tax that is subject to state level approval, excise taxes, or service taxes, like those on dining or lodging.Indiana Code [http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title36/ar2/ch3.html Title 36, Article 2, Section 3] ] Indiana Code [http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title3/ar10/ch2.pdf Title 2, Article 10, Section 2-13] ]

Commissioners: The executive body is made of between three and five commissioners. The commissioners are elected county wide, usually in staggered terms, and serve a four year term. One of the commissioners, typically the most senior, serves as president. They are charged with executing the acts legislated by the council and managing the day to day functions of the county government.

Counties also employee boards to oversee different aspects of the county. These boards are usually filled by direct election from the public, appointment by the commission, or a combination of both methods. Boards typically oversee management of water facilities, public roads, and new projects, among others tasks. Each school district has a board that is elected by public election. County school boards are responsible for funding and management of the public school system within their district. The majority of school funding comes from property taxes imposed by the board on the district. The tax rate is subject to state level approval and is capped, by law, at 1% of property value.

Court: The county maintains a small claims court that can handle some civil cases. The judge on the court is elected to a term of four years and must be a member of the Indiana Bar Association. The judge is assisted by a constable who is also elected to terms of four years. In some cases, court decisions can be appealed to the state level circuit court.

County Officials: The county has several other elected offices, including sheriff, coroner, auditor, treasurer, recorder, surveyor, and circuit court clerk. Each of these elected officers serve terms of four years and oversee different parts of the county government. Members elected to any county government position are required to declare a party affiliation and be a resident of the county.

Town government

According to the Indiana laws, Town Council members serve as both the executive and legislative branches for small communities incorporated as towns within the state. They consist of three or five members, depending upon the town's population.

Unlike some states, Indiana councilmembers must declare a political party affiliation, if any, when they file to run for office. Upon election in November, they are sworn in before January 1 of the following year, where they serve a four year term. There are no state term limits affecting how many times a candidate may run for reelection to office.

The first meeting after an election, members of the town council hold an organizing meeting, where they elect a leader to set future agendas and act as an official spokesman for the town or as liaison between the town and state and county government.

Indiana town councils work in conjunction with an elected town clerk, who manages the day-to-day business of the municipal government. As an elected official, the town clerk is solely executive in function and operates independently of the town council. But the council has final say on budgets which clerks depend upon to operate.

In addition to a clerk, the council can authorize the hiring of other staff to run the operations of government, including law enforcement officers, utility workers, park and recreation employees and town managers. These employees serve at the pleasure of the council.

Township government

A township trustee administers the civil government of the township. The trustee is elected by the residence of the township to a term of four years. The trustee is responsible for providing fire protection and ambulance service to unincorporated areas, providing for poor relief and burial of the indigent, maintaining cemeteries and burial grounds, resolving fencing disputes between neighbors, investigating claims of livestock killed by dogs, controlling weeds, managing the township budget and financial records, and preparing an annual financial report. The trustee also acts as the property tax assessor. Other public matters in which a trustee may sometimes be involved include zoning, parks, libraries, schools, shelters and community centers.

The trustee is assisted by a three-member Township Board whose members are elected to four year terms. Duties of the board include adopting the annual budget, serving as a board of finance and approving township contracts. In January of each year, the trustee presents to the board an annual report showing the receipts, expenditures, investments and debts of the township. The approved report is then published in local papers for public inspection.

Politics

The current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch," an appellation given by President George W. Bush for whom Mitch Daniels was the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was elected to office on November 2, 2004.

Indiana has long been considered to be a Republican stronghold and is rated R+7 on the Cook Partisan Voting Index. It has only supported a Democrat for president four times since 1900 - in 1912, 1932, 1936 and 1964. Nonetheless, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats.

Historically, Republicans have been strongest in the eastern and central portions of the state, as well as the suburbs of the state's major cities. Democrats have been strongest in the northwestern and southern parts of the state along with the major cities. However, outside of Indianapolis, the Chicago suburbs, and Bloomington, the state's Democrats tend to be somewhat more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of the country, especially on social issues.

Indiana's delegation to the United States House of Representatives is not overly Republican either. Instead, it has generally served as a bellwether for the political movement of the nation. For instance, Democrats held the majority of seats until the 1994 Republican Revolution, when Republicans took a majority. This continued until 2006, when three Republican congressmen were defeated in Indiana; (Chris Chocola, John Hostettler and Mike Sodrel), giving the Democrats a majority of the delegation again. [cite web | title=Democrats Take House by a Wide Margin | publisher=NPR | url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6455320 | accessdate=2006-12-11]

Former governor and current U.S. Senator Evan Bayh announced in 2006 his plans for a presidential exploratory committee. [cite web | title=Officials: Bayh to take first step in 2008 bid next week | publisher=CNN.com | url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/01/bayh.presidency.ap/index.html | accessdate=2006-12-11] His father was a three-term senator who was turned out of office in the 1980 Reagan Revolution by conservative Republican (and future Vice-President) Dan Quayle, a native of Huntington in the northeastern part of the state. However, Bayh announced that he would not be seeking the Presidency on December 16, 2006.

The state's U.S. Senators are Senior Sen. Richard Lugar (Republican) and Junior Sen. Evan Bayh (Democrat). Both Senators, although of opposite parties, have proved immensely popular in the state. In 2004, Sen. Bayh won reelection to a second term with 62% of the vote. And in 2006, Sen. Lugar won reelection to a sixth term with 87% of the vote against no major-party opposition.

References

ee also

*Governor of Indiana
*Indiana General Assembly
*Indiana Supreme Court
*Constitution of Indiana

External links

*cite web|url=http://www.IN.gov|title=Indiana's official website|publisher=IN.gov|accessdate=2008-08-11