Call to Arms—Once Again: Moratorium on Annexations

Last week, we highlighted the testimony given by homeowners from around the state before the Indiana State Senate Local Government and Elections Committee on February 7th regarding the bills introduced by Senator Beverly Gard to improve state annexation law to at least give homeowners a fighting chance in remonstrating against forced annexations.

At the conclusion of the testimony, some of the senators stated their concerns that perhaps additional legislation is needed to stop the abuse of annexation law by cities and towns. Many of the senators were not aware of how onerous and expensive it is to fight a forced annexation and many were concerned about the abuses reported during the testimony.

After talking with almost all of the senators on the Committee, Senator Gard believes, given the amount of work that needs to be done on annexation law and to prevent state municipalities from undertaking a rash of annexations pending any changes to the law, the state legislature should pass a moratorium on all involuntary annexations until the legislature has had the opportunity to more carefully review the law and determine specific changes to curb abuse, including (hopefully) some level of governmental oversight on all annexations.

Senator Gard will be introducing the moratorium bill next Wednesday. If you agree that a moratorium is appropriate, please e-mail our state representatives and express you views:

Senator Beverly Gard at S28@ai.org or 232-9400
Senator Luke Kenley at S20@ai.org or 232-9400
Senator Teresa Lubbers at S30@ai.org or 232-9400
Representative Kathy Richardson at H29@ai.org or 773-6123
Representative Gerald Torr at H39@ai.org or 232-9742
Representative Brian Bosma at H88@ai.org or 232-9604
Senator Connie Lawson at S24@ai.org or 232-9400
Senator David Long at S16@ai.org or 232-9400

We would like to extend our heart-felt thanks to our very own Senator, Beverly Gard, for all of the hard work she has put in to fairly and justly represent the issues of her constituency, and for taking up the cause of introducing fairness into the state annexation process.