INDIANAPOLIS | Hoosier Democrats have seen Republican Gov. Mike Pence's $1 billion infrastructure improvement plan, and on Monday raised him another $1 billion, proposing a road funding strategy which requires no borrowing and provides repair money to local governments.
House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, unveiled the Democrats' $2 billion "Crossroads Tomorrow" program.
If enacted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly, it would reprioritize existing state revenues and dedicate the money solely to road and bridge maintenance throughout Indiana.
"The state of our infrastructure at the Crossroads of America is disgraceful, it's embarrassing and it needs to be improved," Pelath said. "It demands a bold solution, one that is fair and one that expresses a collective will that we're going to do better here in Indiana."
Currently, Indiana collects $525 million a year by assessing the state's 7 percent sales tax on gasoline and other fuel purchases.
That money is deposited in the general fund where it is used for education, health care and innumerable other state services.
The Democratic plan calls for requiring that gas sales tax revenue, collected from road users, be spent only for road repair and maintenance, with 53 percent going to the state and 47 percent to local governments — matching the existing dedicated road funding distribution.
"We need to begin the era where everything you pay at the pump that goes to the state of Indiana goes back into paying to fix, maintain or create a road or a bridge here in this state," Pelath said.
Initial funding for the four-year, $2 billion program, set to start in 2016, would come from the state's $2.1 billion budget reserve, Pelath admitted. But he said state spending would be adjusted in Indiana's future two-year budgets to account for this new priority.
"It's not taking anything away from anybody. It's putting the basics first," Pelath said. "The revenue is there. People are paying it every single day."
The governor's plan, dubbed "21st Century Crossroads," similarly spends $241 million from the state's reserves, borrows an additional $240 million and shifts $450 million from other state spending into road and bridge maintenance through 2020.
However, none of the Pence road funding would go toward locally-maintained highways and bridges, which comprise about 70 percent of Indiana's road inventory.
Pelath said the governor's plan is inadequate and more of a "get off my rear-end proposal" than a serious strategy to meet the demands of Hoosier motorists.
"The people of Indiana are crying out for a solution on this," Pelath said. "This is a time for the governor and others to lead our state in a stronger economic direction, instead of just making proposals that simply get you through the next election."
In response, Pence spokesman Matt Lloyd called the Democratic plan "irresponsible and not serious" because it "forces Hoosiers to choose between cutting $500 million from the general fund for vital services like K-12 tuition support, teacher pensions, Medicaid and state hospitals or going broke in four years."
State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the House Roads and Transportation Committee, seemed to strike a middle ground in urging both Pence and Pelath to focus on finding a sustainable, long-term road funding strategy.
"As we move forward on this complex issue, our goal is to address Indiana's immediate needs while developing a comprehensive, data-driven plan that will maintain our state and local infrastructure for years to come," Soliday said.