BY PATRICK GUINANE, Times of Northwest Indiana
pguinane@nwitimes.com
INDIANAPOLIS | Northwest Indiana legislators hope they've found a solution to at least one of the financial clouds hanging over the Regional Development Authority.
Lawmakers want the RDA to spend money even while it hammers out a long-term strategic plan. The instructions will come in the form of House and Senate resolutions, which aren't binding, but seek to clarify what legislators envisioned when they created the RDA last year.
"We thought it was very clear, but their legal advisers thought there was some confusion," said Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville. "They ought to be doing the plan and spending at the same time."
The RDA has $27.5 million in state and local funds to put toward an economic development wish list that includes a large-scale expansion of the Gary/Chicago International Airport.
But attorneys had worried the nascent agency could risk future funding if it bankrolled projects without weighing them against a strategic plan.
Lawyers often look for the legislative intent behind a particular law and the resolutions would help liberate the RDA checkbook, said David Hollenbeck, a Valparaiso attorney who advises the agency.
"I think that goes a long way in telling how we should conduct ourselves and I would encourage them to do that," he said.
RDA Chairman John Clark and Executive Director Tim Sanders could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
"Everyone in the (Northwest Indiana legislative) delegation is united on this," Dobis said.
The internal dispute over how to handle the RDA's initial purse pales in comparison to legislative wrangling over long-term funding.
Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, was selected as an adviser to the committee negotiating a final compromise on legislation allowing the governor to privatize the Indiana Toll Road. She told the committee that the lease proceeds should provide $100 million for 10 years of RDA funding, plus another $30 million each for Lake and Porter counties.
Gov. Mitch Daniels and the House have promised $100 million for the RDA, but the Senate pledged just $20 million, plus another $25 million for Porter County and $15 million for Lake County.
The funds would come out of the $3.85 billion that Cintra-Macquarie, a Spanish-Australian consortium, has offered for the right to run the 157-mile road and collect tolls for the next 75 years.
Daniels has promised a third of the lease proceeds -- roughly $1.3 billion -- to the seven counties that surround the Toll Road. But that figure includes roughly $200 million to repay current Toll Road bondholders and $25 million for legal and accounting fees.
Daniels has billed the lease as a boon to all of Indiana, so northern Indiana shouldn't have to pay the whole $225 million, said Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mary Kay Budak, R-LaPorte, said she is working on a resolution that would allow LaPorte County to join the RDA. Officials in LaPorte and Michigan City support the idea, but county commissioners oppose the move.
Sen. Vic Heinold, R-Kouts, said he could not support the effort until all parties agree.