BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com
The South Shore extension to Lowell and Valparaiso can act as a powerful jobs engines and will not sap money from the Gary/Chicago International Airport expansion, according to the author of a detailed economic analysis of both projects.
Policy Analytics President William Sheldrake on Friday defended his firm's projections that the $1 billion South Shore project would create 26,000 jobs over the next 33 years.
"The 26,000 jobs are in all sectors of the economy, they are in the general direction of the economy in Northwest Indiana, and it takes place out to 2040," Sheldrake said at The Times offices in Munster.
There currently are 317,105 jobs in Lake and Porter counties, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Sheldrake was responding to public criticism of the jobs figure, which has been widely disseminated by the Chicago South Shore Connections campaign in an effort to gain public support for the project.
That figure was contained in a report delivered last year to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. That report detailed the economic effects of the South Shore extension, Gary airport expansion, regional bus service and lakefront development for the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
Shortly after, it was reviewed and approved by the State Budget Committee of the Indiana General Assembly and the Indiana Office of Budget and Management. Those approvals were needed to free up $100 million in Toll Road lease funds for the RDA.
Friday marked Sheldrake's first public defense of the numbers contained in that report. He spoke to Times editors and was accompanied by others, including Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Speros Batistatos.
"We wanted to take a better look at what's behind the curtain, so to speak, as far as the jobs and economic impact of this project," Batistatos said.
Porter County Commissioner Robert Harper and others have sharply questioned the job creation figures. They are a headline item in glossy mailings that have gone out from Chicago South Shore Connections to many households in Lake and Porter Counties.
In addition to jobs projections for all four projects, the comprehensive report prepared by Policy Analytics also laid out a local funding plan for each. It concluded that with the RDA's current funding and the infusion of about $23 million per year, all four could be funded.
That would include more than $200 million in funding for the local share of the Gary airport expansion.
In addition to the local funding, all four projects would be eligible for federal funds. In the case of the South Shore, the commuter railroad hopes to successfully compete for up to $500 million in federal funds.
A bill authored by State Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, that would divert about $30 million in state sales tax money to the South Shore recently passed the Indiana House and is now being taken up in the Senate.
The jobs creation number may seem large, Sheldrake said, but the growth takes place over a 33 year period. It is basically the number of jobs above what the region would create if the extension were never built.
"I see this as just another avenue, where maybe I can keep my grandchildren here," said James Strayer, business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council. "Now we will be opening up another corridor to one of the biggest job markets in the United States."