INDIANAPOLIS - The Senate sponsor of the governor's transportation plan said Tuesday he has made a firm promise to keep language in the bill that changes the route of Interstate 69 if it is built as a toll road.
He said he also has made a firm commitment to keep the language that requires legislative approval for any future toll road project.
House Bill 1008, dubbed Major Moves, gives Gov. Mitch Daniels permission to lease the Indiana Toll Road. A Spanish-Australian consortium bid $3.85 billion for a 75-year lease.
In the House version, the bill also would give Daniels authority to enter into future lease agreements. Daniels said the I-69 extension is the only other project in the 10-year transportation plan that he would like to bid out as a privately run toll road.
In the Senate, members added a provision to require legislative approval before entering into future toll road projects. And they barred I-69 from running through Perry Township on the south side of Indianapolis if it is a toll road.
On Friday, Daniels called on the Senate to water down the Perry Township language from a strict ban to just requiring the Indiana Department of Transportation to look into rerouting I-69 west of Perry Township.
But the Senate sponsor, Sen. Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, said Monday that if he did that, he would lose votes in the chamber where the bill passed its first round with 29 yes votes. To pass a bill in the Senate, 26 members must vote for it.
When asked Tuesday, Meeks said he would lose seven votes if he changed both the Perry Township ban and reinstated tolling authority for I-69. Sen. Richard Bray, R-Martinsville, is strongly opposed to tolling on the I-69 section that is plotted to run over Indiana 37. "I-69 as a toll road is slightly less popular than smallpox in my district," Bray said.
Meeks said he won't give on either issue.
"I made a commitment to Sen. Bray (on tolling permission). I made a commitment to Sen. (Pat) Miller and Sen. (R. Michael) Young (on the strict Perry Township ban)," Meeks said. "I won't go back on my word."
Meanwhile, Republican support in the House could waiver depending both on I-69 issues and because northern Indiana residents are opposed to an Indiana Toll Road lease.
The bill passed its first round in the House with all 52 Republicans voting for it. But at least one northern Indiana Republican is reconsidering his yes vote and Southwestern Indiana Republicans are grumbling about the I-69 provisions.
According to local House Democrats, the governor's office is not talking to them about the bill. Instead, the Republican State Party began radio ads Monday targeting three House Democrats for their initial no votes and Daniels is running general television commercials calling for public support.
In the midst of this, the conference committee met for the first time publicly Tuesday to highlight where the sides stand. Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, argued that the Perry Township language isn't a hindrance to I-69 if it is built as a freeway.
"I-69 is not a highway from Indianapolis to Evansville. It's a highway from Canada to Mexico," Van Haaften said. "If the only leg of I-69 that is a toll road is in Indiana, companies will locate south of us to avoid the toll."
"A toll road between Indianapolis and Evansville will not be economic development. A freeway will," he said.
But Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, spoke to the conference committee saying she is afraid that if tolling isn't part of the project, it will be delayed.
"I don't want governors any longer to have an excuse not to build it," Becker said. "The Perry Township language cannot be addressed later. I just want the governor to be able to toll if it's necessary."
And she said any reconsideration of the route is a mistake.
"Routes should be decided by experts in the field, not by legislators," she said.
INDOT Commissioner Tom Sharp also attended and said chances of breaking ground on I-69 in 2008 as the administration has pledged would be "very slim" if House Bill 1008 doesn't pass.
Conference committee members are to submit written ideas on the bill by today. If a compromise bill is developed, both chambers must pass it by midnight Tuesday.