House speaker says South Shore expansion effort deterred, not derailed

BY PATRICK GUINANE, Times of Northwest Indiana
pguinane@nwitimes.com

INDIANAPOLIS | The state Senate put the brakes on South Shore expansion last week, but House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, considers the commuter rail effort deterred, not derailed.

Three weeks remain in this year's session of the Indiana General Assembly, and Bauer represents the most powerful voice among those who argue time remains to engineer a rail funding agreement.

Some $30 million a year is needed to close a $350 million gap in the $1 billion plan to extend South Shore lines to Lowell and Valparaiso. And Bauer wants another $7 million a year to cover half the cost of $150 million in improvements for the eastern half of the South Bend-to-Chicago commuter railroad.

Legislation to divert state sales tax dollars to the cause cleared the House last month. But Senate Tax Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, deemed the tab too costly to the state, routing the legislation to a summer study committee.

Bauer considers that a mere setback. He says his conversations with Kenley and with Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels have given him hope the rail plan won't have to wait until next year.

"I think it's still a possibility to get something done," Bauer said. "Both have expressed strong support for the concept because they think it's a tremendous economic development opportunity for all of northern Indiana. And I want to continue to discuss with (Daniels and Kenley) the ways and means to get it done."

Having cleared one chamber of the Legislature, the South Shore funding legislation, House Bill 1220, is eligible for one of the House-Senate conference committee that will hammer out compromises during the last two weeks of session. And some suggest the rail funding plan could wind up being inserted into property tax relief legislation that has dominated the legislative agenda.

"I've seen things get resurrected at the very end, and what I see happening now is that there are so many bits and pieces going into the tax bill," said state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes. "Certainly the Senate has been full of bills put forth by Marion County or donut counties (around the state capital) that are really special legislation for them. And I don't see that what we're doing is any different from that."

But in the case of the South Shore bill, communities including Hammond and Gary now are pushing for additions that would bring stations and rail spurs to their cities.

The South Shore expansion bill's author, State Rep. Chet Dobis, D- Merrillville, said the odds are against all of those loose ends being resolved before lawmakers adjourn for the year on March 14.

"Is it absolutely impossible? No," Dobis said. "Is it probable? No."