Bill would allow areas to form regional development Authorities similar to NWI

A bill in the General Assembly would allow county and municipal governments around the state to form their own RDAs. House Bill 1774 requires government bodies to secure a local funding source other than property taxes before they can join an RDA.

Legislators who support the bill believe it will be a hard sell, since the Northwest Indiana RDA was formed thanks in large part to a hard push from Gov. Mitch Daniels coupled with a promise of more than $100 million in state money to augment local spending.

"Let's face it," Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said. "The reality is, the only place this has happened is Northwest Indiana, where the state gave them millions of dollars as an incentive to pass Major Moves," Daniels' plan to lease the Indiana Toll Road.

Porter County also pays in about $3.5 million annually in income tax revenue, while Lake County's three casino boat cities and the county kick in a total of $14 million a year, from casino gambling revenue.

The bill's author, Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, acknowledged it might be tough to convince counties without casinos or the promise of state subsidies to partner with neighboring governments.

"It's feasible it could be another 20 years and we don't have another RDA outside Northwest Indiana," he said.

And the Northwest Indiana RDA isn't exactly redrawing the map with major construction work. Formed in spring 2005, the group has allocated funds to study several proposed regional projects -- Gary/Chicago International Airport expansion, Lake Michigan shoreline renovation, regional bus service and commuter rail upgrades -- but has not broken ground on any.

Officials from chambers of commerce in the Fort Wayne and Evansville areas nonetheless turned out in force to support the legislation, which allows two RDAs in each of Indiana's nine economic development zones, as the Senate Economic Development and Technology Committee considered the proposal Monday.

"We're not saying this is something we're going to run out and form right away, " said Joni Howell, manager of the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce. "But it is an option we would like the governments in our area to have."

HB 1774 allows locally formed RDAs to partner with the state for funding, in which case the governor would be able to appoint a member to the organization's board of directors, as Daniels did in Northwest Indiana.

Van Haaften said the legislation would have no impact on the Northwest Indiana RDA's operation.