By John Byrne, Post-Tribune staff writer
Gary Mayor Rudy Clay and the city's state senator, Earline Rogers, held a news conference last week to discuss their perspectives on a proposed $1 billion extension for the South Shore line.
Clay talked about wanting a rail spur to the Gary airport as part of the project.
And Rogers said she would author a legislative escape clause for Gary to get out of funding the South Shore extension through the Regional Development Authority.
But they weren't really aiming their comments at the media.
Nor were they speaking primarily to their constituents back in Lake County.
Taken as a mission statement, the Clay-Rogers South Shore announcement was aimed squarely at the biggest supporters of the $1 billion extension plan: State Rep. Chet Dobis and U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, both of Merrillville.
Include the airport spur in the South Shore plan, Clay and Rogers indicated, and Gary will willingly (if not happily) kick in $3.5 million a year to the RDA.
Otherwise, are you crazy?
Rogers said the myopic focus on the South Shore extension, to the exclusion of other parts of the RDA's mission amounts to changing the game in the middle.
Yet, she added, Gary's lawmakers would be "much more amenable" to the plan if the airport spur were included.
Rogers also said Gary is not talking about pulling out of the RDA.
"I just want Gary to be able to keep its options open," she said.
Clay called on legislators to "remove the impurities" from the South Shore plan.
To garner his support, Clay also said he wants to see the spur added.
Gary's representatives have been openly hostile to the South Shore plan. Both Charlie Brown and Vernon Smith voted against it in the House.
Smith said lines of communication "have completely broken down" between Dobis and other members of the House regarding the extension.
Dobis vehemently denies that, insisting he has welcomed input from his colleagues and tried to convene meetings with the Northwest Indiana delegation to debate the merits of the bill.
Dobis said the spur is a worthwhile idea, but allowing Gary and other RDA funders to get out of the 10-year funding deal would kill the South Shore.
Visclosky, attempting the legislative equivalent of herding cats, remained steadfastly upbeat in his public comments about the South Shore plan's prospects.
"There's nothing here that can't be worked out," he kept saying.
Simple enough, congressman. Show Gary the spur, and Gary will show you the money.