Long road ahead for Illiana Expressway in Indiana Legislature

INDIANAPOLIS | Is the proposed Illiana Expressway a one-time deal, or should it be the model for all future public-private partnerships in Indiana?

That question, for the past three weeks, has divided the Indiana House. Representatives have screamed at one another in their offices, cried behind closed doors and one even lost his leadership post over the question.

What's to come in the final four weeks of the legislative session?

"Nobody knows. Nobody knows," said state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.

The original bipartisan Illiana Expressway plan sponsored by Soliday, state Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, and state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, was, to this trio of Northwest Indiana lawmakers, simple. Add a few lines of text to an existing state law that allows specifically designated highways to be built as public-private partnerships.

For the Illiana -- a proposed expressway connecting Interstate 65 in Lake County with Interstate 55 near Joliet -- that means the state would own the land underneath the road, while a private operator would build the road and collect tolls for its use, Dobis explained.

Once it has legislative authorization in hand, the Indiana Department of Transportation could start seeking an investor to build the road. The specifics concerning environmental impact, local government payments, property taxes and eminent domain would be worked out later, Charbonneau said. The goal was just to get started on what is likely to be a multidecade process.

The Senate voted 48-0 on Jan. 28 to approve this idea and send Senate Bill 382 to the House.

However, top Democrats in the House were not satisfied with the Senate's single-shot approach to the Illiana.

State Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, chairwoman of the Roads and Transportation Committee, replaced the House's Illiana legislation with an amendment containing rules for all public-private partnerships. Austin believes Indiana needs to have statewide guidelines in place before any public-private partnership, such as the Illiana, is consummated.

"To me, it makes sense that we try to build in a process using a statewide model, as opposed to just a project-by-project approach," Austin said.

Dobis disagreed. He said Austin's proposal, including a requirement that every local government affected by the road give its approval, would kill the Illiana. So Dobis, then the No. 2 Democrat in the Democratic-controlled House, sided with the Republicans to vote down Austin's committee report, killing her amendment.

That led House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, a supporter of Austin's proposal, to remove Dobis from his Democratic leadership post in retaliation for Dobis' vote with House Republicans.

Now Austin says she's going to try again, using Senate Bill 382 as her vehicle.

Bauer, as well as Austin, have said they're open to removing the local government consent requirement in exchange for preserving mandates on public participation, economic and environmental impact studies, as well as due process and eminent domain rules for land acquisition.

Austin also is taking to the road to hear what Northwest Indiana residents think about the Illiana proposal. She will hold a special session of her House committee at 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of Crown Point High School, 1500 S. Main St.

"I think we need to hear from people," Austin said. "I'm trying to listen to what folks say and take their suggestions."

A committee vote on Austin's amendment is set for Feb. 22. The full House would also have to approve the committee report for the Illiana legislation to remain alive.

After that, the legislation could still be amended by the full House before a final vote takes place. If approved, a House-Senate conference committee would have until March 14 to work out the significant differences between the two versions of the Illiana legislation before it could go to the governor.