By Erik Potter, Post-Tribune staff writer
epotter@post-trib.com
MERRILLVILLE -- U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky and state Rep. Chet Dobis, both Merrillville Democrats, made another push Thursday to put the South Shore rail line extension at the top of the region's agenda.
Addressing a crowded ballroom of the area's business leaders at the Northwest Indiana Forum's annual Government Affairs Committee meeting, Visclosky repeated the points that South Shore advocates have been trumpeting.
"The South Shore extension is about jobs and economic growth," Visclosky said, stressing the plan's potential for expanding the region's economic base. "Shame on us if we wait for steel to struggle again."
In the district this week, Visclosky has gone on a tour promoting the South Shore plan, addressing environmental groups, Kiwanis and Rotary clubs and the Lake County Convention and Visitors Center.
Dobis said legislators are close to putting together a tax proposal to generate $30 million a year needed to finance the $350 million needed in local funding.
Dobis said the Northwest Indiana delegation is "close" to finishing the language of the bill, what the tax will be, and who will impose it.
He said he hopes to have the bill finished by Christmas and in a form that the delegation will accept without multiple amendments.
The Forum's legislative agenda for the 2008 session:
Allow municipalities to permanently exempt high-tech companies from the personal property tax.
Create three-way liquor licenses for large-scale entertainment developments.
Expand municipalities' ability to capture local taxes and reinvest them in economic development zones. Currently, municipalities can capture the property taxes paid in a designated zone to finance development projects in that same area, but they cannot similarly capture personal or sales taxes.
Pass the Great Lakes Basin Compact, which would ban -- with limited exceptions -- diversions unless OK'd by the eight Great Lakes states and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada.