INDIANAPOLIS - The Senate will consider amendments to the governor's transportation funding bill today as hundreds of local residents rally in the Statehouse to show support for the Interstate 69 extension.
House Bill 1008, dubbed Major Moves, originally allowed Gov. Mitch Daniels to enter into a contract to lease the Indiana Toll Road and to enter into future public-private partnerships. The Daniels administration landed a bid of $3.85 billion for a 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road, which runs across the northern part of the state.
Daniels said the only other project the administration wants to potentially do as a privately run toll road is the I-69 extension from Indianapolis to Evansville.
But a Senate committee amended the bill to require legislative approval for any future toll projects, meaning Daniels would have to come back to the General Assembly to do I-69 as a private toll road.
I-69 backers worry the removal is a blow to getting the project fully funded and under way quickly.
"(In House Bill 1008) We're presented with an opportunity to fast track construction," said Steve Schaefer with the Metropolitan Evansville Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, the chamber is bringing that message to the Statehouse today when more than 250 people are expected to rally and talk to lawmakers about the impact of I-69. But several powerful senators have qualms about the selected route.
Sen. Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, said he has talked to Indiana Department of Transportation officials asking them to review the selected route from Bloomington north to Indianapolis, saying that entire section has opposition. That portion of the route would run basically over the current Indiana 37, taking out or cutting off access to many existing businesses and homes.
Meeks said a widened Indiana 37 may be necessary to handle traffic growth south of Indianapolis, but he also said there may be other alternatives. "I want to make sure they don't throw all the options out," Meeks said.
Sen. Pat Miller, R-Indianapolis, also opposes the current I-69 route and added a provision during committee hearings to bar INDOT from running the I-69 extension through Perry Township on the south side of Indianapolis if it is built as a tollway. The requirement would mandate that the I-69 route be moved outside the 1,000-foot corridor approved by the Federal Highway Administration in March 2004.
According to INDOT spokesman Gary Abell, the department completed an internal analysis Monday of federal rules and said any change of the route outside the approved corridor would mean a roughly three-year delay as the state filed amendments to the original environmental study.
Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, also has questions about the selected route. But neither Kenley nor Meeks said he plans to add anything to House Bill 1008 to require the state to review the route's entire Bloomington-to-Indianapolis section.
"The Perry Township language is red flag enough to the administration," Kenley said.
In fact, as of late Monday, no House Bill 1008 amendments had been made public.
Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said I-69 opposition is stronger in the Senate than in the House and that has her frustrated. She said without language enabling the I-69 project to be done as a privately run toll road, she won't vote for House Bill 1008.
"It was my whole reason for even supporting Major Moves in the first place," Becker said.
She said the criticisms of I-69 are more of "the same old, same old."
"Indianapolis wants the money to be spent in Indianapolis instead of Southwestern Indiana," Becker said. "If people at home are disillusioned, I can't say that I blame them."