INDIANAPOLIS - Evansville Sen. Larry Lutz said Wednesday that he would consider being the second Senate Democrat to break with his caucus and vote for the governor's transportation bill.
Be he said his vote would only be changed if the bill is revised to facilitate the Evansville-to-Indianapolis extension of Interstate 69.
I think I want to keep an open mind on this one," Lutz said.
House Bill 1008, dubbed Major Moves, allows Gov. Mitch Daniels to lease the Indiana Toll Road. In the House version, Daniels would also have authority to do future lease projects, including building I-69 as a privately run toll road.
In the Senate, the bill was stripped down to just authority to do the Indiana Toll Road lease. Plus language was added that bars I-69 from running through Perry Township on the South Side of Indianapolis if it is a toll road.
Lutz said the Perry Township language is the most harmful to I-69, causing a potential six-year delay to the project.
"Even then the federal government may or may not approve the new route," Lutz said. "The Perry Township language as it is now will doom I-69."
Lutz said he also favors including authority to build I-69 as a toll road in the bill and that he'd have to see the "total package" before he could say if it would sway his vote.
Lutz was one of 20 senators who voted against the measure in the first round versus 29 who voted for it. It takes 26 senators to pass a bill.
The Senate sponsor of House Bill 1008 said he must keep the strict Perry Township language in the bill because he made a promise to Sens. Mike Young and Pat Miller.
Young, R-Indianapolis, said the bill would lose his vote if the Perry Township language is watered down. Miller, R-Indianapolis, declined to say how it would affect her vote because "it's not going to happen."
Another senator, Richard Bray, R-Martinsville, said the bill must not allow tolling on the I-69 portions that will be built over the existing Indiana 37, but said the Perry Township issue doesn't affect his vote.
Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, said he would vote for House Bill 1008 regardless of changes to either tolling or route language. Sen. Robert Garton, R-Columbus, said he's sympathetic to those who don't want tolls along the existing Indiana 37 but that including the tolling authority "wouldn't necessarily" cause him to vote no.
If the Perry Township re-route is removed, Sen. Vaneta Becker said she'll remain a yes vote. That move might gain the bill a vote from Sen. John Waterman, R-Shelburn, and possibly from Lutz.
A tight vote count also appears to be forming in the House. Southwestern Indiana Republicans are firm in their stand that the Perry Township language will change their votes.
House Republicans are scheduled to have a closed-door meeting on the bill today at 1:30 p.m. to take the temperature of the caucus. House and Senate negotiators must get a compromise bill through both chambers again by the midnight Tuesday deadline for the session to end.