Mitch Daniels and Retiring Guy on Same Page When It Comes to Township Government

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Unlikely duo of Daniels and Cuomo crusades to shrink local government. (Stateline, 10/4/2011)

Excerpt: dislike for excessive governance below the state level. Taking his cue from a 2007 commission he appointed to look into streamlining local government — the tagline on its report read, “We’ve got to stop governing like this” — he has tried repeatedly to do away with township government [for which I admire him; emphasis added], which he considers wasteful and obsolete. Indiana's 1,008 townships carry a hodge-podge of responsibilities that, in most other states, are the job of counties: Fire and EMS services to unincorporated areas, property tax assessment, "poor relief," maintaining cemeteries, and a system of small claims courts.

The Wisconsin Towns Association doesn't go for a touchy-feely, 'voice of grassroots government' descriptor.

To me, it's more along the lines of I'll give you my town government when you take it from my cold, dead hands.

Wisconsin has 1,258 towns.