INDIANAPOLIS | The push to eliminate township tax assessors faced some opposition Wednesday, narrowly escaping a Senate committee on a 5-4 vote.

After a year marked by soaring bills and general taxpayer disgust, some lawmakers, including Gov. Mitch Daniels, argue Indiana must streamline assessing duties to improve public confidence in the property tax system.

"Changing or eliminating the assessors isn't going to change the system. We still have the same laws and rules in place to do the work," said Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake. "I think, for the most part, it's not going to save money either."

Landske was one of the four members on the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee to vote against Senate Bill 16. The legislation would do away with Indiana's 1,008 elected township assessors, shifting their responsibilities to the 92 county assessors.

"If we keep doing the same thing, we're going to keep getting the same result, which is assessments that are not uniform and fair for taxpayers," said Mark Lawrence, a senior vice president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. "We're after a better system here."

The legislation would allow county assessors to keep satellite township offices and would require them to interview deposed township employees for the hundreds of county assessing jobs that would be needed to handle the consolidation.

The plan, which moves to the full Senate, might produce negligible administrative savings, supporters acknowledge. But they insist it's accountability they're after.

"If we have to put more money into the assessment system to get it right than that's what we need to do," said Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville.

The legislation, which Lawson is sponsoring, would allow the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance to mandate one assessment software system for all 92 counties. And it would set up a procedure for the state agency to recommend removal of derelict county assessors.