By VICKI URBANIK
Chesterton Tribune
A Senate Committee on Tuesday approved a plan to create a four-county transportation district with the powers to impose a new income tax in Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties for current and future rail and bus service in the region, potentially giving a big boost to the South Shore extension.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Transportation & Veterans Affairs unanimously passed a lengthy amendment to H.B. 1607 that would create a nine-member Northwest Indiana Regional Transportation District made up of county commissioners and county council members from the four counties.
The new transit agency would have the authority to impose an income tax of up to 0.25 percent on taxpayers in each of the four counties, with the rate determined by the level of bus and rail service in each county. The tax rate could go up or down in each of the four counties to correspond with the level of capital and operating funds in each county, as long as the rate does not exceed 0.25 percent.
The amendment appears to give the new transit board full authority to impose the tax, with no other local approval required, by a majority vote among the nine members. That suggests that a tax could be imposed in any of the four counties even if that individual county’s representatives vote against it.
The new regional agency would have separate rail and bus divisions. According to the amendment language, the current operators of the South Shore commuter service -- the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District -- would become the rail division of the new district. The Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority would be rolled into the bus division, as would bus services run by municipalities, such as those in Valparaiso, Gary and Hammond.
The new district board would be made up of one county commissioner and one county council member from each of the four counties. The county council member is to be the council president or another council member designated by the president.
The governor would appoint the ninth board member. This individual would serve as the district board chair and would not have voting powers, except to break a tie. The governor appointee must be an elected official from one of the four counties.
Among other responsibilities, the new transit board would hire an executive director and would have the authority to own property and to bond for capital improvements. As a public agency, its property would be exempt from property taxes.
The amendment approved Tuesday calls for the new income tax -- called the Regional Transportation Improvement Income Tax -- to take effect on Oct. 1 in the year that the tax is adopted, after the transit board approves a resolution and gives public notice of the tax in each county in which it is proposed.
The Senate Committee passed the amendment 8-0 ; the only Northwest Indiana lawmakers on the committee are Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, and Jim Arnold, D-Michigan City.
The bill now moves to the Senate Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy. The Northwest Indiana lawmakers on that committee are Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso; Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake; and Lonnie Randolph, D-Gary.
The original House bill, authored by State Rep. Chet Dobis, D- Merrillville, was called the “West Lake” bill and called on the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority to establish separate funds for the South Shore extension to Lowell.
Dobis’ original bill also included language to require that the members of the RDA -- including Porter County -- remain as members for at least 10 years.
Dobis’ bill was amended in the House to include $53 million in appropriations from the federal stimulus bill for the South Shore commuter service as well as transit services in central Indiana. More specifically, the appropriations included $15 million toward the relocation of the South Shore tracks at the South Bend airport, $5 million for rail improvements in Michigan City, and $15 million for the initial engineering and environmental studies for the South Shore expansion to Lowell.
The amendment approved by the Senate Committee on Tuesday takes the House bill a giant step forward, by setting up a new government entity, as well as a local funding mechanism, for current and expanded rail and bus service.
Dobis’ bill passed the House 68-31. In the Senate, the bill’s sponsors are Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville; Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes; and Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso.
If the Senate-amended bill passes the full Senate, the bill would be sent to a conference committee, to resolve the differences between the House and the Senate versions.
The original language in H.B. 1607 requiring that the members of the RDA remain members for at least 10 years remains in place.
Posted 4/1/2009