The Mayor’s plan to consolidate is driven by the huge financial debt in the Indianapolis Fire Department Pension Fund. The problem is not Township Fire and Ambulance service or cost or accessibility; but the City’s failure to pay down on the unfunded pension liability.

The Townships have managed their pensions frugally. Pensions expenses account for only 5 percent of our budget. The IFD pension takes 34 percent of their operating budget for a total of $30 million. That means that $30 million or 34% of the IFD fire budget goes to men and women who no longer work there. Because of this fiscal crisis, the Mayor’s proposal looks to the Township’s suburban taxpayer pockets for dollars to financially help pay on a service never received nor created by Townships and a problem never resolved by the City. The Mayor’s plan is simple. The outlying townships have a lower tax rate than the IFD district. Because Township tax rates would go up, the consolidation plan is to capture those dollars and apply them to the IFD pension fund. We would get higher taxes and lose control of our Fire Department and Ambulance service and gain nothing in return except higher costs.

The Marion County Trustees developed a plan to help the City and still maintain lower tax rates for Township residents. The Township Trustee Plan provides financial relief to the City through contractual surplus fees and through retirement attrition of fire fighters for a $20 million savings over a 3 year period. The Township Trustee Plan also keeps Township tax rates lower and local Township control of Fire and Ambulance services for better accountability and accessibility.

The premise of consolidation is that by enlarging the structure of government it will lead to lower cost. A recent study by IUPUI (Effective Government Reform Can Be Achieved in Indiana) concluded that most efforts to reduce costs by consolidating local government failed. It is also argued “that the availability of a large number of local governments encourage competition, reducing costs and encouraging economic growth and provide citizens with more choices about the tax, service and amenity package they prefer.”

It’s hard for some of us to see how putting a failing Indianapolis Fire pension budget on a county-wide service is supposed to improve service, cost, accessibility and accountability.