INDIANAPOLIS - Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to fund Interstate 69 construction through Southwestern Indiana by building two privatized toll roads in the central and northwestern parts of the state cleared a major hurdle Monday.
After hours of debate, the Indiana Senate passed Senate Bill 1, also known as the Indiana Commerce Connector bill, 36-13. Three of Southwestern Indiana's five senators voted for it, including one Democrat. The bill now goes to the House.
"I think it's good for Evansville and Southern Indiana," said Sen. Bob Deig, D-Mount Vernon.
Senate Bill 1 transfers tolling authority from Interstate 69 to two new tollways: the Illiana Expressway in northwestern Indiana and the Indiana Commerce Connector through the Indianapolis suburbs.
Daniels has said the state could reap $1 billion to $1.5 billion in proceeds that a private company might pay for the rights to build and operate the Commerce Connector as a toll road. Those funds would be used to fund I-69 construction from Crane warfare center to Indianapolis and allow I-69 to be a freeway.
Interstate 69 construction from Evansville to Crane will be paid for through last year's lease of the northern Indiana toll road.
The 63-mile Illiana Expressway project is supported by northwestern Indiana legislators as a means of moving gridlocked traffic between Michigan City, Ind., and the Chicago suburbs. But that project is included in the same bill with the more controversial Indiana Commerce Connector, a 75-mile tollway around the east and south suburbs of Indianapolis that would link six counties and interstates.
Residents of those counties have been vocal in opposition to their homes and farms being lost to eminent domain for a private tollway. But an attempt in the Senate to split the Commerce Connector project from the Illiana Expressway and send the connector to a study committee failed last week.
During third-reading debate Monday on Senate Bill 1, some senators expressed concern about the legal authority the Legislature would be giving up if it passed the bill as written.
"I'm not ready to allow the governor to go forward with the Commerce Connector until my questions are answered," said Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, who voted no.
But Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, told senators she supports the connector because its proceeds would fund Interstate 69.
"We have been discussing, debating and cussing to get I-69 in Southwest Indiana for longer than I have been a legislator, and that's 26 years - longer than I have been in the General Assembly. The people that I represent would like to see us move forward," Becker said. "The longer we wait, the more that (the interstate) costs."
Sounding a voice of skepticism, Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton, said private operators would have to charge high enough tolls not only to build a new toll road but also turn a profit.
Hume noted Daniels has been termed "bold" for introducing the privatized toll-road proposal to fund interstate construction.
"Well, Evel Knievel was bold, but he never strapped me to his motorcycle and I didn't have to jump the ravine with him. And we're asking the people of Indiana to cross this ravine, and we don't know how it's going to work out," Hume said.
Sen. Thomas Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, is the Senate Transportation Committee chairman, and he reiterated federal highway dollars will not be sufficient for Indiana to build interstates in the future and public-private partnerships like Daniels has proposed are the wave of the future.
Among the 36 "yes" votes for Senate Bill 1 were Becker, Deig and Sen. John Waterman, R-Shelburn. Among the 13 "no" votes were Hume and Sen. Richard Young, D-Milltown. Another prominent Democrat, Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, the leading proponent of the Illiana Expressway, voted yes.
The bill moves next to the Democratic-controlled House, where Wyss said he has found two Republican representatives to carry his bill.