The Indiana University Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, part of Indiana University's Public Policy Institute, announced this week a plan to study court reform as recommended by the Kernan Shepard Report issued last December.

Many township trustees already do not appreciate some of the recommendations by the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform. However, there are 27 recommendations to streamline local government, including the court system.

The IU group will study ways to make the state's system of trial courts more equitable and efficient. According to the announcement the study will pay particular attention to governing, budgetary and personnel issues, which should be of particular interest to Carroll County taxpayers and residents because those issues have been addressed at least three times in this county in recent history.

The issue of judicial mandates was widely felt two years ago when Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Smith issued a mandate, or court order, to the county council to pay salary and benefits for personnel in a position which was already held by another staff person who was on disability leave, yet receiving county taxpayer-provided benefits. The judge said he needed the help but the council said the county could afford the expense. The judge was able to relieve his own situation with a court order - and it stuck. County taxpayers paid.

The council faced a similar situation last year at budget adoption time. They reduced the courts' budgets and the judges threatened to mandate to force the council to appropriate taxpayer money they believed they needed to operate their courts efficiently. The matter was resolved when a local attorney, at no cost to the county, brokered a compromise between the two sides.

The Kernan-Shepard Report recommends shifting Indiana's trial courts to a state funding model thereby alleviating counties from the threat of severe financial complications in the event of a judicial mandate.

The director of the IU group said the study would take a critical look at how other states have approached managing and paying for their local courts. He said their goal is to identify ways Hoosiers can be assured equal access to services from the courts and that courts are funded in the most cost-effective way.

That sounds like a good plan.