April 1, 2009
By John Byrne
Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- Legislative supporters of rail and bus funding for Northwest Indiana are trying a new tack to get local taxpayers to foot the bills for the projects.
The Senate Transportation Committee voted Tuesday to create a four-county regional transportation district em-powered to levy an income tax as high as 0.25 percent to pay for mass transit in Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties.
The ambitious plan could raise $52 million per year to subsidize big-ticket capital projects and operating expenses, circumventing the local officials who have been unwilling or unable to adopt a tax themselves, particularly in Lake County.
If the income tax were levied at its maximum amount for each county, Lake County residents would kick in $22 million annually, Porter $12 million, LaPorte $5 million and St. Joseph $15 million, according to Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, who offered the proposal as an amendment to a House transportation bill.
Not coincidentally, Kenley's plan could pay the $350 million local share of the $1 billion-plus South Shore rail extension to Lowell and Valparaiso, and underwrite bus service in the area.
"There is a rough correlation there," Kenley, R-Noblesville, told the committee in explaining why he settled on a 0.25 percent maximum.
The nine-member, first-of-its-kind "super board" Kenley envisions would include a county council member and a county commissioner from each county, as well as a governor-appointed chairman, who would vote only to break ties.
The state budget agency would get final say on how high an income tax residents of each county would get saddled with, taking into account the capital improvement needs in each county, and the number of passengers and passenger miles each county contributes to regional mass transit.
Lake County, where a lot of work is required to complete the South Shore extension, might get a high capital assessment.
St. Joseph County requires less construction, but passengers heading into Chicago travel farther, adding to the operating assessment as the state figures an appropriate tax.
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, has pledged $500 million in federal transportation funds for the rail extension.
But the project has foundered in the General Assembly for lack of local matching revenue.
State Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, said there seems to be greater momentum to get something done now.
"I'm more optimistic now than I was at this time last year," said Dobis, a staunch supporter of the South Shore rail project.
Before it becomes law, however, the package has to get approval from the full Senate and head to conference committee for further consideration. If it does run that gauntlet, the bill may end up looking far different from the one approved Tuesday.
Other provisions
In addition to funding bus and rail systems in the region, the board would set goals and standards for those divisions to meet.
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, administrator of the South Shore commuter rail line, would report to the new board.
So would a bus service division created by the statute, which could spell the end of the Regional Bus Authority.
Dobis, author of the transit bill Kenley amended, voiced his disdain for the RBA during testimony Tuesday.
"Our RBA today, is a disaster," Dobis told the committee. "We have no idea where they're going."
Revealing a possible point of contention as the bill advances, committee member Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, defended the RBA.
"There are many among us who don't consider the RBA a disaster," she said.
Though she believes it will cut the RBA out of administering the region's troubled bus system, Rogers nonetheless voted for the proposal because it acknowledges the need for buses in Lake County.
Kenley's amendment stripped out of the bill language that would have directed $35 million in federal stimulus funds to South Shore rail projects in Lake County, Michigan City and South Bend.
The bill passed the Transportation Committee 8-0, and will next head to the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee for more debate.
Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield, chairs Tax and Fiscal Policy.
He has expressed reservations about allowing Lake County to raise new taxes, arguing elected officials in Indiana's northwest corner haven't done enough to cut spending.
But Hershman said the cross-county membership of Kenley's board quiets his concerns.
"It makes me feel a little better that there would be a level of regional collaboration," he said.
Contact John Byrne at 317-631-7400 or jbyrne@post-trib.com