LAPORTE — With the state's only toll road already in their backyard, some LaPorte County officials are taking a stand against the possibility of another highway with tolls in their county.
The LaPorte County commissioners this week unanimously passed a resolution opposing a road funding bill in the General Assembly that includes a provision to study possible tolling on three interstate highways, including I-80/94. House Bill 1001 has passed the full House and is now before a Senate committee.
Adding tolls to I-94 would hurt the economy and be unfair, particularly with the Indiana Toll Road already in LaPorte County, the commissioners argue.
Commissioner Dr. Vidya Kora called levying a fee to use the highway running through LaPorte, Porter and Lake counties 'a very bad idea' and one that would negatively impact an already struggling economy in the region.
'I think we need to find other funding sources,' Kora, a Democrat, said.
The only toll road in Indiana is the 157-mile stretch of Interstate 80/90 from Illinois to Ohio. But House Bill 1001, authored by Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, requires the Indiana Department of Transportation to seek a waiver from the Federal Highway Administration to add tolls to Interstate 65, Interstate 70 and Interstate 80/94 as well as requiring INDOT to conduct a study of tolling on those interstates.
The bill, more prominently, includes new fuel and sales taxes for highways to raise money for roads, but some lawmakers have argued that those measures won't be sufficient to fix the state's highways.
One of the sponsors of the bill is State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte.