INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said Friday that he agreed with his transportation commissioner's statement that I-69 extension will be built as a toll road or not built at all.
"That's pretty much what I've said for a long time," Daniels said when asked about the comment Tom Sharp made at a conference Monday. During the 2004 campaign and since, Daniels often floated the idea of using tolling to help pay for I-69 construction but never directly said that if tolling doesn't work out, the road won't be built.
Daniels said Friday that he feels good about the reception so far of his transportation package, dubbed "Major Moves." The plan would allow the I-69 extension to be built as a toll road and allow the state to lease both I-69 and the Indiana Toll Road to private companies to manage.
Daniels said he was optimistic about the chances of passing legislation and he tried to turn up the pressure to vote for the bill.
"This is the jobs vote of a generation in the Indiana General Assembly," Daniels said. "Really if you're for 69 ... you'll be for this bill."
When asked if he was saying that I-69 would take longer to be build as a free highway or, like Sharp, that without tolls, it wouldn't be built at all, Daniels did not answer directly.
"If for some reason we were not successful with this initiative, at least half the projects on the books won't happen in any reasonable time frame," Daniels said. "People who want to take a position of reflective opposition need to start explaining which half they don't care about."