General Assembly OKs Major Moves

INDIANAPOLIS | With a midnight deadline fast approaching, the Republican-controlled House voted 51-47 to approve Gov. Mitch Daniels' plan to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign consortium offering $3.85 billion.

With less than an hour before adjournment, the Senate then voted 31-19 to approve Major Moves. As expected, Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, broke party ranks to support the governor's proposal.

Speculation ran rampant on the final day of the General Assembly's 2006 session. Observers wondered whether House Democrats would walk out and if House Republicans could hold together their razor-thin 52-48 majority.

Even during the House debate, an aide to the governor conferred with Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Lakeville, a politically vulnerable freshman being challenged in November.

House Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, implored legislators to "Reject this bad deal."

The proposed lease, brokered by Daniels without prior approval from the Legislature, gives the state $3.85 billion to fund most of the new construction in Major Moves, a 10-year $10.6 billion road plan promising dozens of long-sought construction projects and up to $120 million for the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

In exchange, Cintra-Macquarie, the Spanish-Australian consortium that runs the Chicago Skyway, would operate the 157-mile road and collect tolls for the next 75 years.

House Democrats, who hope to regain control after the fall election, said the lease deal had been pushed too fast and negotiations were tainted by "gimmicks and gifts" needed to secure GOP votes. Republicans, meanwhile, said the highway plan was about much more.

"We all think this a vote about roads today, but it really isn't," said House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "It's a vote about vision and it's a vote about leadership."

Before the debate, Bosma and Bauer engaged in short but heated verbal exchange after Democrats left the chamber to discuss House Bill 1008.

When they returned, Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, asked lawmakers to heed the public opposition that has been voiced in northern Indiana.

"Gov Daniels is not the governor of Australia, and he is not the governor of Spain," Dobis said. "He is supposed to listen to the taxpayers of the state of Indiana, and so are you."

Republicans, including Daniels, suggest the public will warm to concept once it begins to see the benefits of Major Moves, including at least $280 million for economic development in the seven Toll Road counties. The plan also would fund two new Ohio River bridges and a long promised extension of Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville.

In the Senate, Rogers was one of only two Democrats planning to vote for Major Moves. Her support secured the RDA funding, along with assurances that the Toll Road's nearly 600 works will get comparable jobs with the private operator or the state.

"I had to represent my district," said Rogers, who also secured $12 million over six years for job training programs geared toward minorities.