The plans to establish a new RTA-like agency with taxing powers in Northwest Indiana has prompted a swift and strong reaction.

On Tuesday afternoon, Porter County Commissioner President Robert Harper said he was outraged when told about the amendment to H.B. 1607, which would create a four-county transit agency to oversee rail and bus service. Harper said he had been tracking another mass transit bill pending in the Indiana Legislature and was of the understanding that any new transit district with the powers to tax would be left optional only for counties.

“I think it’s a crime. It infuriates me,” Harper said. Any state senator or representative from Porter County who was involved in the legislation “sold this county down the tubes.”

Early last year, Harper filed open records requests and found that regional officials were mulling a possible regional tax to fund the expansion of the South Shore service to Lowell and Valparaiso. He strongly opposed that new tax as well as the behind-the-scenes planning.

A similar reaction to the H.B. 1607 amendment came from Porter County Council member Laura Blaney, D-at large.

“The biggest crime of this entire bill is that it not only ignores but also flies in the face of the will of the voters,” she said.

Blaney said people who want to pay for mass transit should be able, at the very least, to vote for the people who have taxing authority. But with the proposed transit board, voters from any one county would have direct influence over two, possibly three, of the nine members, which means “you don’t have very much control.”

“It’s another example of taking away local control,” she said.

Porter County’s representatives on the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District Board -- North Porter County Commissioner John Evans and Porter County Council member Sylvia Graham -- both raised concerns about how the new transit agency would affect NICTD, which operates the South Shore commuter service.

Evans said RTAs can and do work well in other parts of the country, and that it will be important for regional officials to make sure they understand the legislation. But, he said his initial reaction to the plan is that it’s a way to shore up Lake County’s troubled bus systems.

“I’m really tried of solving Lake County’s problems,” Evans said, adding that for too long, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties have been asked “to come with their checkbooks to the aid of Lake County.”

Evans said NICTD has seen major progress in its operations of the South Shore and that he fears NICTD’s efforts could be eroded by tying the agency in with the regional bus systems. He also noted that the county commissioners and council members who would be on the new transit board would have broad CEO-like powers to oversee the region’s rail and bus systems, even though most of these elected positions are part-time only.

“There’s no way those people are going to be adequately compensated,” he said.

The amendment, in fact, specifically prohibits the new transit board members from getting paid, other than per diem expenses. Evans noted that other proposals pending in the Indiana Legislature would do away with the post of county commissioners. “It’s like we’re trying to play all sides against the middle,” he said.

Graham also said she was furious about the amendment and the fact that it was introduced without the input of local elected officials.

“It’s April Fool’s day. I hope this is a joke,” she said this morning.

Graham said she feels the proposal is another attempt by the state government to overrule the wishes of the local voters, saying that the election results last year made it clear that most people in Northwest Indiana don’t want more taxes. She said local voters, through their local government, should be the ones to make major policy decisions, not a state-mandated new agency.

“This is like creating a territorial government,” she said

Graham said that to her knowledge, the NICTD Board was not involved in the planning of the amendment and that the NICTD board voted unanimously recently not to back the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority over a proposed food and beverage tax to fund the region’s buses.

NICTD Executive Director Gerald Hanas said NICTD officials knew that lawmakers were working on such legislation and that they gave some input, but that the amendment that came out of the Senate committee Tuesday was the first time that NICTD saw the language. He said NICTD needs to analyze the language to see how it should be changed and if it’s in the best interests of the commuter service.

“We’re trying to get through it ourselves,” he said.

Hanas said the Regional Transit Authority structure that’s outlined in the Senate amendment is a fairly common structure in other parts of the country. He noted the similar transit agency in Illinois, which oversees Chicago area’s rail and bus systems.

“They can work if they’re designed right,” he said. “It’s all about the details.”

Posted 4/1/2009