By Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
keith.benman@nwi.com
A day after voters trashed a proposal to create a Regional Transportation District, local train and bus boosters said they will continue to push for mass transit funding -- but probably not for an RTD.
"Nobody has the stomach for anything related to this at the moment, but unfortunately, it's a topic that is not going to go away," said Tim Brown, executive director of the Regional Bus Authority.
Porter County voters rejected the RTD by an almost 4-1 margin and in St. Joseph County the margin was 18-1 against. The referendum measure's most controversial provision was the one giving the RTD power to levy a 0.25 percent income tax.
State Senate fiscal leader Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, insisted on inserting the referendum provision in the RTD legislation as it worked its way to passage in the General Assembly. When contacted Wednesday afternoon, he asked how the referendum went. When told the result, his answer was short.
"I guess that solves the problem, doesn't it?" he said.
The tax could have funded the South Shore commuter railroad in four counties and regional bus service in Lake County. But Lake and LaPorte counties defied the state mandate and did not hold elections.
Even the RTD's most ardent supporters say voters spoke clearly on Tuesday.
"People didn't know what they were voting for, but they knew what they were voting against, and that's higher taxes," said Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas, one of the few politicians to stick his neck out and support the measure publicly.
Costas said what the region needs now is an overall mass transit plan. He said several ideas are floating around, including creating an authority without taxing powers to put the plan together. Another idea is to "supercharge" the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority by making it the direct overseer of mass transit services.
But both those items would take action from the Statehouse. It now may be difficult in the wake of Wednesday's vote to get legislators to approve any new transportation initiatives for Northwest Indiana.
"They'll just say: 'That's typical Northwest Indiana. They can't agree if the sun is up or down,'" said state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.
Soliday predicts it could be anywhere from two to 10 years before the Indiana General Assembly takes up a bill addressing Northwest Indiana's mass transit needs.
RTD opponents say they're not so sure state legislators got the message.
"They would be derelict in their duties as representatives of the people to continue the shenanigans downstate," Porter County Councilman Dan Whitten said. "But nothing would surprise me."
Although legislators and some community and business groups are pressing for mass transit expansion in Northwest Indiana, just the opposite is occurring.
At the end of last year, Northwest Indiana Community Action closed its dial-a-ride bus service when funding dried up. In June, Hammond Transit was due to be executed by the city's Common Council but got a two-year reprieve when the council decided to fund it with $900,000 per year in casino funds.
Local transit officials across the state are also looking to the state to pump up spending on mass transit. The state currently distributes a small sliver of state sales tax collections to local mass transit agencies.
"There needs to be some legislative effort conducive to all of Indiana, whether it's northwest, central or southeast or any part of the state that wants to do mass transit," the RBA's Brown said.
Northwest Indiana Forum CEO Vince Galbiati said it's time to assess what happened on Tuesday and come up with a clear development plan before starting any new legislative initiatives.
"Our message isn't resonating," Galbiati said. "We have to find a better way to tell the public what a good idea this is and not be afraid of the word tax. This is an investment that will boost the community."