After decades of near begging for support of an Evansville to Indianapolis interstate highway, the first major leg of Interstate 69 is completed and work will soon proceed to Bloomington. The highway is far from being completed, much less planned and financed to Indianapolis, but it is further along than anyone imagined just a relatively short eight years ago.
The highway project had the magnificent support of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (and before him, the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon) and the Indiana Department of Transportation, but it never really enjoyed the support of power brokers in Central Indiana. Critics of I-69 suggested it either be forgotten (one called it the "highway to nowhere") or that it go way out of the way through Terre Haute. When suggested a safe, direct highway between Evansville and Bloomington was needed for Indiana University students and their parents, some suggested college students from Southwestern Indiana already had a state university in the University of Southern Indiana at Evansville and did not need to consider Indiana University as an option. We countered that this would be OK with us, if Bloomington agreed to give up IU and all of its economic benefits. It was oft suggested that it would serve Indiana better to spend the money on a rail system than on an interstate highway through Southwestern Indiana.
Anyway, although I-69 appears destined now to be constructed all the way to Indianapolis, it still has never been embraced by Indianapolis and Central Indiana.
We bring it up today because of something we read in the Indianapolis Star newspaper, long a leading critic of the Interstate 69 project. An editorial on the coming legislative session asked, "Why should a lawmaker from Fort Wayne or Evansville allow voters in Marion and Hamilton counties to decide whether to raise taxes on themselves? Because, like it or not, Central Indiana is the state's chief economic engine, and a usable transit system is an important piece of strengthening the region's long-term economic outlook."
We agree. A Central Indiana transit/rail system would serve the Indiana economy, just as will I-69. But it reminded us that when Southern Indiana supporters of I-69 were arguing that a direct highway would serve the economy of all of Indiana, it raised barely a snore from Indiana lawmakers and media.
According to the Associated Press and the Indianapolis Business Journal, what's going on in Central Indiana is the formation of a coalition of 18 Central Indiana cities and towns to support a bill seeking to expand regional bus service and to create a commuter rail line. If approved, the taxes would help fund a proposed 10-year, $1.3 billion plan for a commuter rail line from Noblesville to downtown Indianapolis. Bus services in the Indianapolis area would be doubled. Another transit bill died in the legislature last year.
According to the AP, the bill would create a nine-county transit district and allow ballot questions in Marion and Hamilton counties on whether to raise their local income taxes to help fund the mass transit project. If the referendums would pass, taxpayers there would pay for the plan.
As for transportation and the economy, our opinion hasn't changed after all of these years. The better the highway and transit systems throughout Indiana, the better for the Hoosier economy and the Indiana quality of life. So if the folks in Central Indiana want to increase their taxes to fund transit, have at it.