Indiana mass transit group wants a 'green' fee on cars and trucks

BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com

The state's prime advocacy group for mass transit will urge lawmakers to increase funding for buses and commuter trains through a "green" fee on cars and trucks.

And the plan could end up helping efforts in the region to extend the South Shore commuter rail service.

The Indiana Transportation Association's 2009 legislative agenda calls for a $10 per motor vehicle environmental registration fee and an increase in the thin slice of sales tax currently dedicated to mass transit.

The fee could raise an estimated $52 million for mass transit across the state, said ITA Executive Director Kent McDaniel. It would particularly help with the push for regional transit systems in Northwest Indiana and other parts of the state.

"Transportation problems don't end at the city limits," McDaniel said.

The agenda also repeats the ITA's longtime call for increasing the state's sales tax contribution to the Public Mass Transportation Fund.

Indiana's recently mandated local tax caps have plunged bus systems in Northwest Indiana and across the state into crisis, and the ITA's 2009 agenda is an effort to give legislators options in dealing with it, McDaniel said.

The ITA represents public bus systems, the South Shore commuter rail line and private mass transit operators across the state.

The environmental fee also would help expand funding for commuter rail. Currently the South Shore is the state's only commuter rail line. South Shore operator Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District wants to extend the line to Lowell.

The Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority also has plans for commuter rail lines connecting Indianapolis and its suburbs.

"We like this toolbox approach because it gives maximum flexibility to the Legislature," said NICTD Planning and Marketing Director John Parsons.

As an ITA member, NICTD voted in favor of the agenda as did the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority.

A push by state Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, for a $50 per car "wheel tax" to fund the South Shore extension failed to gain traction in the General Assembly two years ago.

The ITA agenda calls for a wide range of other measures, including the forming of regional transportation authorities and special use districts to fund mass transit.

A key to getting any part of the agenda passed will be showing legislators that local communities are putting up some of their own money to fund regional mass transit, said RBA President Dennis Rittenmeyer.

"We have to do some things to convince people in other parts of the state that we are willing to fulfill our part of the bargain," Rittenmeyer said.