By the Associated Press
3/13/2006
Gov. Mitch Daniels was pleased with a tentative agreement two top lawmakers reached on his "Major Moves" plan and the authority it would give him to lease the Indiana Toll Road to help pay for numerous highway and other transportation projects.
"With thousands of jobs at stake, there are few compromises that I wouldn't agree to," Daniels said in a written statement. "Ones reached in the past few days are all acceptable, especially given the enormous upside to Indiana's economy."
Republican Rep. Randy Borror of Fort Wayne and Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, said they believed their proposed compromise _ allowing much of the planned Interstate 69 extension to become a tollway and pushing a route change _ could pass both the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
Any final compromise would have to be approved by both chambers by midnight Tuesday to beat the deadline for adjourning the regular session. But if it failed to pass by then, Daniels would have the option of calling a special session in hopes of getting his top priority through.
Earlier versions passed each chamber with few yes votes to spare, but the plans had some major differences between them. Copies of the proposed compromise were distributed to legislators Monday evening. Even then, Borror and Meeks said a few more details may need to be worked out.
The cornerstone of the plan would allow Daniels to lease the northern Indiana toll road to a private, Australian-Spanish consortium for an upfront payment to the state of $3.85 billion. The companies would then operate and maintain the 157-mile highway and collect its toll revenue for 75 years.
Daniels and most Republicans say the money would help pay for hundreds of highway and other transportation projects and create tens of thousands of jobs without adding debt to the state.
Meeks said many of his constituents oppose the legislation, but he believed it was the right thing to do.
"I think it's an opportunity to put concrete in the ground and build roads for my kids," he said.
As of last week, only one Democrat _ Sen. Glenn Howard of Indianapolis _ had unconditionally endorsed the deal. But at least two Senate Democrats have indicated they could support the bill under certain conditions.
Most Democrats have attacked the plan, saying among other things the state should not sell a major asset to a private entity _ especially a foreign one _ that would eventually collect billions of dollars in toll profits for decades.
Some differences between the House and Senate bills involved the planned extension of Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and Evansville. Daniels wants to make that a toll road and lease it, but the Senate-passed bill would not give him that authority.
To help shore up support among a few Republican senators, Meeks said the tentative agreement would allow Daniels to make the stretch of I-69 from Evansville to Martinsville a toll road. But the remaining 25 miles to Indianapolis could not be a tollway or run through Perry Township in southern Indianapolis without future approval from the Legislature.
The Daniels administration had said previously that changing even just the federally approved portion of the route through Perry Township could delay the project for at least three years.
But Meeks said Daniels is now "of the opinion" that it would not stop progress on I-69.
"They can start from the southern end and it gives him ample time _ a year or two or three or four years or whatever _ to try to work some of those" regulatory matters out.
Republicans control the Senate 33-17, but the bill passed earlier with only three more votes than needed. And Meeks had said several Republicans could withdraw their support if the changes involving I-69 were not made.
Republicans have only a 52-48 majority in the House, and no Democrat in that chamber has supported the plan. The bill passed on a 52-47 party-line vote earlier this session. But it would take 51 votes to pass a final plan in the House, and some Republicans had indicated reservations about supporting it a second time.
At least 34 percent of money from the lease would go to the seven toll road counties for transportation or other economic development projects. To help appease some lawmakers in those districts, Elkhart, LaGrange, LaPorte, Steuben and St. Joseph counties would each get $40 million.
Lake and Porter counties would share $40 million, Meeks said. But they also belong to a regional economic development authority that would get $10 million in each of the next 10 years and an additional $20 million would go for upgrading the Gary/Chicago airport, he said.
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