House-approved legislation that green-lights the possibility of turning every free interstate highway in Indiana into a tollway is advancing in the Senate.
The Senate Homeland Security and Transportation Committee unanimously approved House Bill 1461 Tuesday with no changes to its tolling provisions. It next goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further evaluation.
Under Indiana law, the governor since 2017 has been authorized by the Republican-controlled General Assembly to seek federal approval to toll interstate highways passing through the "Crossroads of America."
But this year's measure would delete a statutory requirement that the first tolled interstate be located at least 75 miles away from an existing tollway or toll bridge, such as the Indiana Toll Road spanning northern Indiana or the Cline Avenue Bridge in East Chicago, making Interstate 80/94 and Interstate 65 in Northwest Indiana immediately eligible for tolling.
The potential for interstate highway tolling in Indiana also is more viable than in the past because new Republican Gov. Mike Braun has not indicated whether he intends to seek federal approval for tolling, despite repeated inquiries to his office.
As a member of the House, Braun voted in 2017 to authorize the governor to seek federal approval for tolling. However, Republican former Gov. Eric Holcomb categorically refused to do so, keeping the possibility of interstate highway tolling off the table until this year.
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, tolling Indiana's interstate highways could generate $4.2 billion for road and bridge projects in the first five years, and up to $38.2 billion through 2050.
Tolling is the only major new revenue source in Pressel's road funding legislation. The measure also encourages more counties and municipalities to adopt a wheel tax to qualify for local road funding grants and requires townships to allocate a portion of their excess reserves for road construction projects.
In comparison, the 2017 road funding law hiked Indiana's gasoline tax to now 35 cents a gallon from 18 cents, continued the 7% sales tax on gasoline purchases even though most other states don't double tax gas, raised vehicle registration fees for all motorists, established new fees for hybrid and electric vehicles, and opened the door for tolling.
However, it's not clear how open the federal government is to tolling after Republican President Donald Trump and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last month ordered a halt to New York's congestion pricing program in Manhattan because Duffy considers it a "slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners" for motorists to have to pay a toll to travel on existing roads.
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