Hoosier Democrats irk GOP with local road funding proposal

BY PATRICK GUINANE, Times of Northwest Indiana
pguinane@nwitimes.com

INDIANAPOLIS | House Democrats aroused Statehouse tempers Thursday by unveiling a state stimulus package that would gut the Indiana Department of Transportation budget to free $245 million a year for county and city road projects.

Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, acknowledged her legislation, House Bill 1656, is flawed. But she stressed the need to show local officials the General Assembly intends to address a mounting concern and cut them in on Indiana's share of the proposed $850 billion federal stimulus package.

"It really bothers me when I learn that many of them cannot afford to even buy salt," Austin said.

But state Transportation Commissioner Karl Browning was livid, telling legislators they were delaying him from the visitation for an INDOT mechanic killed in a fall Saturday in Fowler.

"Instead I'm here talking about a bill that I can't imagine has any possibility of seeing the light of day," he said. "If it does have a possibility, I feel sorry for the rest of us in this state."

Browning said the Democrats' trial balloon would filch nearly half of INDOT's annual budget, grinding to a halt all state road construction projects and forcing Indiana to forfeit $700 million a year in federal dollars.

The proposal cleared the House Roads and Transportation Committee on a 7-5 party-line vote. The plan is now expected to move to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Austin's measure also would order INDOT to fast-track 25 stalled highway projects, which Browning called a "Ted Stevens pork-barrel component." In another reference to the disgraced Alaska senator, a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels dubbed the proposal "the bill to nowhere."