By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
If he could do it all over again, the governor would try to get a detailed route of the proposed toll road, talk with more people and find out more about the economic benefits, he said.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has said he won't bring back the proposed Indiana Commerce Connector, but he would make some changes if he could start the process over.
One change would be a specific route, so people could see how they truly would be affected, Daniels said.
"For every person who would really have been affected if we had built this road, there were probably 20 who were alarmed that they might be. We didn't know which was which," he said.
And the governor would have spent more time studying the economic benefits and talking with local landowners.
"We did a lot of talking to local leadership, elected officials, economic-development people all the way around the route for months, but that wasn't the same. We could have done better," he said.
Daniels said he decided to withdraw his proposal for the road after following the debate and listening to feedback from people in the affected communities.
"There was no one pivotal moment, it was simply coming to the conclusion that we were far from the kind of consensus you would need to go ahead," he said.
He withdrew his proposals this week for the central Indiana beltway and a toll road in northwest Indiana. He had announced the projects in November.
The proposed road would have addressed two of three top goals he has for Johnson County, Daniels said.
His goals are: quality jobs, better educational results and preserving a high quality of living, which he said includes the ability to move around conveniently.
"Items one and three on that list were the motives of the connector proposal, but now we'll be looking for other ways to advance those things," he said.
Daniels called the discussion of the toll road healthy for the area and state.
"I hope we're always the kind of state that will look into ideas and talk about them actively. Some will be good, some will not. Some will be at the right time, some will not," Daniels said.