By Steve Walsh, Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- With the clock ticking, the governor's Major Moves will need a major sales pitch, at least among lawmakers along the Indiana Toll Road.
Gov. Mitch Daniels is banking on selling a 75-year lease on the road to private company as the primary funding for his 10-year road plan.
The Post-Tribune and The Truth surveyed lawmakers along the route and found overwhelming bipartisan reluctance.
If unchanged, the sheer size of the voting block could be enough to doom Major Moves, especially in the House, where Republicans hold a narrow, two-vote majority.
Realizing that votes can change -- especially after the governor announces the amount of money the deal could bring into the state -- the two newspapers asked 27 lawmakers across northern Indiana (13 Democrats and 14 Republicans) where they would stand if the vote was taken last week. Of the 27, only three supported, or at least leaned toward supporting, the governor's plan.
The rest either opposed or were leaning against leasing the toll road.
No Democrat said he or she was leaning toward voting for Major Moves.
Probably the most troubling aspect for the Republican governor is the number of Republicans who remain unconvinced.
"I'm going to keep an open mind, but I'm not going to roll over and play dead on this" said Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, whose district lies along the route.
"If they're talking about leasing it for $1.5 billion or $2 billion, they can forget it; that's not enough. If they're talking $6 or $7 billion, that's something we'd at least have to look at a little closer," said Meeks, who also heads the influential Senate Budget and Finance Committee.
The biggest single objection, aside from not having enough details about the contract, is the amount of money from the sale that would be spent in other parts of Indiana.
"You look at list of projects and they are in central and southern Indiana," said Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville. He said projects such as improvements on U.S. 31 and the widening of the Indiana Toll Road in Lake County are already far enough along that they may be delayed, but they would not be derailed, even if the state did not get the infusion of cash promised by the lease.
So far, the governor's promise to spend at least 34 percent of the proceeds from a lease in northern Indiana has not been well received by lawmakers in tollway districts.
At the very least, they have decided the percentage should be higher. Rep. Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said the state has more traditional ways to pay for road projects, such as issuing bonds based on the impending toll increases.
Over 20 years, Bauer said the state could earn $20 billion based on the minimum increases anticipated under the private contract, rather than the minimum $2 billion promised by the private lease. "The state would take in more than that with 20 years of tolls; mathematically it's not a smart choice," Bauer said.
The governor's office is disputing Bauer's calculations. Office of Management and Budget Director Chuck Schalliol said the figures do not take into account the liability of maintaining the 157-mile highway or the cost of operation, which has risen by 5 percent a year over the last nine years.
To raise the $2.8 billion needed for Major Moves, the governor's office estimates it would require a doubling of the state's 16-cent gasoline tax.
In response to bipartisan calls for more information, the administration is promising to compile its own set of numbers showing what could be raised using bonds. Schalliol predicted they would generate fewer road dollars.
Private companies, he said, have tax advantages, such as depreciation and the ability to write off interest, which allow them to generate higher profits than the state.
The fact that the winning bid probably will not be an American company has also given lawmakers pause.
"I don't like the idea of a foreign company running the toll road," said Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.
The administration is playing up the benefits of outside investment, adding that the workers will be living in Indiana. "Isn't it great that we can get them to put their money into Indiana?" Schalliol said.
"The more money we can get from outside Indiana, coming into Indiana, the better I like it."
Other comments included the need to protect the roughly 600 toll road workers and keep control over the process of raising tolls along the route. The debate will unfold within the next couple of weeks. Bids are due Jan. 20.
Daniels has pledged to make an announcement Jan. 23.
If the process ends in a tie, the governor can call another round of bids, which would be submitted on Jan. 30 -- just days before the Feb. 2 deadlines for bills to leave the House.