BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com
Two weeks ago, the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority feared it might lose it all in the political maelstrom of the Indiana Toll Road lease.
Today, the group is sitting on a double-dose of initial funding worth $40 million, with half of that slated to go to the Gary/Chicago International Airport.
"I think the RDA did very well and, some would say, better than it deserved, given the lack of political support by a lot of quarters up there of what we are trying to do," RDA chairman and Daniels' adviser John Clark said Tuesday.
Opposition to Gov. Mitch Daniels' Toll Road lease plan has been centered in northern Indiana, where commuters and truckers fear higher tolls.
Two weeks ago, Clark phoned RDA members from Northwest Indiana and told them it was time to get vocal and lobby for RDA funding. A bill then pending in the Senate stripped $100 million the RDA was to receive over 10 years. It replaced that amount with just $20 million to be paid over two years.
The bill that finally passed the House and Senate late Tuesday gives the RDA $40 million out of Toll Road lease proceeds for the authority's first two years of operation. The bill says $20 million of that must go to the airport.
In addition, beginning in 2007, the RDA will get $80 million over the next eight years. In addition, the Indiana Finance Authority approved $10 million in RDA funding late last year.
Gary Mayor Scott King and Daniels talked by phone Wednesday morning.
"I said, I’m sorry we didn’t come through on the 100 (million dollars), will 130 do?" Daniels said he told King.
Democratic State Sen. Earline Rogers, one of only two Democrats in the Senate to vote for the bill, also was being praised Wednesday for her political shrewdness in bargaining her vote for Gary airport funding and a jobs program.
"She's a force to be reckoned with," Gary airport director Paul Karas said.
But one goal of the RDA may have been made more difficult by Tuesday's action.
In a funding wrinkle, LaPorte County -- if it were to join the RDA -- would see its $40 million in economic development funds sliced by $15 million, which would go to the RDA.
The mayors of the two largest cities and the county's major business groups back joining the RDA. But key political leaders in county government have been opposed.
"If the RDA is a good business proposition, it will be up to us who are proponents of the RDA to demonstrate that," said LaPorte Mayor Leigh Morris, an avid supporter of the RDA. "And if we can't demonstrate that, then they shouldn't join."
Since Lake County and Porter County are already in the RDA, their funding for economic development was already cut back in the bill.
Lake County's share was sliced to $15 million and Porter County's to $25 million. That was done on the reasoning the RDA is already getting $40 million, so all economic development funds combined add up to $80 million for the two counties.
The $20 million in funding for the Gary airport appears to be more than the airport was going to request from the RDA.
Karas said Wednesday the airport can use the full $20 million and was not ruling out future requests from the RDA.
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved $57.8 million in funding for the extension of the airport's main runway. But that project alone is estimated to have a total cost of $89 million. The airport also has plans for extending its second runway.