Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
keith.benman@nwi.com
The future of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority was on trial Tuesday night with no clear verdict rendered but plenty of evidence laid before the people's court.
A symposium on the RDA at the Porter County Expo Center drew 300 people, who listened as three RDA boosters and three skeptics debated whether it will be the region's savior or its undoing.
"The only way we can succeed as a region is to think of our region as whole," said Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., an outspoken proponent of the RDA.
"The way we fall into traps is if we think only of our city and our town."
Porter County Commissioner Bob Harper maintained the RDA's projects such as the South Shore extension will lead to tax hike after tax hike.
"(The RDA) was sold as being able to do everything, and it didn't even have the money to do one of them," Harper said.
Tuesday night's symposium was put on by The Times to clear up "confusion and misinformation" swirling around the RDA since the Porter County Council's April vote to withdraw from the organization, Times Opinion Page Editor Doug Ross told the audience before it commenced.
In addition to McDermott, the RDA proponents on the panel were RDA Chairman Leigh Morris and Mark Reshkin, a retired Indiana University Northwest professor. In addition to Harper, skeptics on the panel were Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard and Porter County Farm Bureau President Jack Rust.
Dan Lowery, host of "Lakeshore Focus" on Lakeshore Public Television, was the moderator. He asked the panelist questions that had been submitted earlier by Times readers.
The RDA was established four years ago under legislation passed by the Indiana General Assembly. It is charged with improving regional bus service, expanding the South Shore commuter railroad, improving Gary/Chicago International Airport and implementing the Marquette Plan for lakefront development.
It is funded with $14 million per year in casino money in Lake County contributed by Hammond, East Chicago, Gary and the county government. Until the vote to withdraw, Porter County contributed $3.5 million per year raised by its local income tax. The state of Indiana contributes $10 million per year raised by the lease of the Indiana Toll Road.
Morris pointed out that already hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state financial commitments have been landed for the RDA's "transformational projects." He maintained those projects will allow Northwest Indiana to compete successfully when it comes to landing new businesses and the jobs they bring.
"The idea behind the RBA is to bring all of Northwest Indiana up, both its economy and quality of life," Morris said in response to a question on what it will mean if Porter County is not a part of the RDA. "Lake County alone just doesn't cut it."
Rust, of the Farm Bureau, had a very succinct answer to the same question.
"It just means, as far as I'm concerned, we won't have to pay more money to the RDA."
Porter County has now taken its effort to cut off funding to the RDA to court. The Indiana attorney general's office is arguing the case for the RDA and maintains Porter County cannot leave the organization.
The RDA skeptics at Tuesday night's seminar based much of their opposition on the issue of taxes, arguing the RDA could not be separated from the Nov. 3 referendum to create a regional transportation district. If approved by voters, the district could impose an income tax of up to 0.25 percent to fund South Shore commuter rail expansion and regional bus service.
Morris made the point several times that the RDA itself has no authority to impose taxes of any kind.
Those in the audience like Porter County farmer Debbie Morrow said they learned a thing or two about the RDA. In her case, she said she didn't know it was involved with the development of Gary/Chicago International Airport.
But as a farmer, she said she opposed the South Shore expansion because of the effect it would have on farmland.
Jack Bell, attending with his wife, Nancy, said Morris' statement that the RDA doesn't have the ability to tax was very important to him.
"I wasn't a big RDA fan before I came here," Bell said. "But I changed my opinion to be honest."