INDIANAPOLIS - When Indiana House Democrats passed a $26 billion state budget out of the Ways and Means Committee on Monday, one surprise was there was no funding included for the Interstate 69 extension project.
Although $1.1 billion raised through last year's lease of the northern Indiana toll road is sitting in an account, the House Democrats' two-year state budget does not include an appropriation for I-69 or other Major Moves road projects, officials said.
Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said House Democrats want more specific information from the Indiana Department of Transportation about how the money will be spent.
A prominent Republican lawmaker, Senate Transportation Chairman Thomas Wyss of Fort Wayne, criticized the Democrats' not funding I-69 as political gamesmanship. "It's unfortunate that issues like that are apparently being held hostage. For somebody to now start playing around with that, all they are doing is negatively impacting parts of our state."
Avery, budget vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, predicted the budget bill will be "dramatically modified" as it progresses through the Legislature. "(I-69 funding) will ultimately happen," he said. "We're not going to sit and draw interest on a fund that large."
How the Democratic-controlled Indiana House will approach Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget priorities has been closely watched all session.
On Monday, the Ways and Means Committee voted 15-8 to pass the budget bill, which makes appropriations for various departments within state government. It goes next to the full House, which Democrats control 51-49. Extensive changes are expected once the budget bill reaches the Senate, which Republicans control 33-17.
Avery said the I-69 project was not the sticking point for Democratic committee members. He said during a budget hearing a few weeks ago, INDOT officials did not testify with enough specificity about how they intended to spend the $1.1 billion on other projects.
"That's a huge, huge appropriation of money," Avery said. "It's just a matter of we want input. I don't think it's reasonable that we should pick the projects, but I do think we need to be comfortable with what's being done with the money."
INDOT spokesman Gary Abell said the department's commissioner, Karl Browning, testified recently about INDOT's 10-year plan of new road projects, for which the Major Moves money was set aside.
According to INDOT's Web site, that includes $44 million for I-69 construction in 2008 and $75 million for 2009. Groundbreaking on the first section of I-69 north of Evansville is scheduled for summer 2008.
A total of 22 infrastructure projects were planned for 2008, for a total $430 million, while another 23 projects were scheduled for 2009, at a cost of $659 million, the document says. Absent an appropriation by the Legislature, none of those projects would be funded.
"We're continuing to work toward groundbreaking (of I-69) in summer of 2008," Abell said.
News of the House Democratic budget omitting I-69 funding did not go over well with Steve Schaefer, the full-time Statehouse lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce of Southwestern Indiana and for Hoosier Voices for I-69.
"It's extremely unfortunate that they're doing this right now," Schaefer said. "The list has been on INDOT's Web site, it's been public. They know what projects are on that list."
Wyss said the state budget will be changed greatly once it reaches the Senate. Republican senators strongly support building I-69, he said. "I would say definitely we would put it back in," he said.
Avery also believes by the time the final budget is passed in late April, a compromise will be worked out that funds I-69 construction.