LaPorte County has taken steps aimed at encouraging the state to attempt to take back operations of the Indiana Toll Road or, if it remains under a lease, to provide revenue sharing to counties along the entire stretch of the highway.
The county commissioners on Wednesday hired a law firm specializing in bankruptcy proceedings to investigate if the language in the 75-year lease can be executed for allowing the state to regain daily operations of the Toll Road, which was leased in 2006 to a private operator now in bankruptcy court.
If the operations do not revert back to the state, the attorney will push for revenue sharing for LaPorte and all other counties adjacent to the highway from whatever company assumes the lease or a restructured lease in the future.
LaPorte County attorney Shaw Friedman said the preference of the commissioners is for the state to reassume operations of a highway he called a 'cash cow.' Friedman said the state would have to 'buy back' control of the Toll Road for about $2.4 billion to help retire whatever debt the private operator, ITR Concession Co., is responsible for after its bankruptcy proceedings. Its current debt is listed at $6 billion.
Friedman said the state can float a bond issue to finance the 'buyback.'
And, even with such a debt, figures obtained from the Toll Road show annual profits of about $80 million annually from the highway that could be applied toward the debt payments and local infrastructure, Friedman said.
Copyright © 2024, South Bend Tribune