By VICKI URBANIK

The bill clearing the way for a 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road passed the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee on a party line vote Tuesday night, with local lawmaker State Rep. Ralph Ayres voting with fellow Republicans in support.

Ayres said this morning that he hasn’t guaranteed that he will vote for the bill when it comes before the full House for a final vote sometime on or before Tuesday. But to kill the bill at this stage, he said, would have put an end to further discussion about how the state could fund infrastructure improvements statewide.

“Killing the bill now would not provide any solution to infrastructure needs,” Ayres said, calling the committee vote a way to keep the issue alive.

Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Monday that the same firm that operates the Illinois Skyway submitted the best bid by offering $3.8 billion upfront in exchange for the right to operate the Toll Road for 75 years. Statewide Mobility Partners, a Spanish-Australian consortium, would be responsible for maintaining the road and would retain all tolls collected.

The private operator would have the ability to increase tolls by at least 8.2 percent in 2010 and by at least 2 percent every year after that beginning in 2011, under a concessionaire agreement.

The state, in turn, would use the $3.8 billion for Daniels’ highway plan known as Major Moves, which includes a host of road and bridge projects statewide such as the new Hoosier Heartland Highway, the I-69 highway, the Fort to Port project that would connect Indiana to ports of Toledo, and two Ohio River bridges. In Porter County, the projects identified in the Indiana Department of Transportation’s 10-year plan include $45.8 million in I-94 improvements, $4.5 million on U.S. 30, the new interchange at Ind. 49 and C.R. 400N, and additional lanes on U.S. 6 from Lake County to S.R. 149.

In addition, all of Indiana’s 92 counties, and their municipalities, would share in $50 million in each of the next three years to be spent on road projects. This money would be in addition to the state funds that counties and communities already get for road projects, known as their Motor Vehicle Highway Funds.

In Porter County, the annual breakdown of these additional MVH funds includes the following distributions: Porter County government, $526,127; Chesterton, $48,185; Porter, $22,843; Burns Harbor, $3,519; Dune Acres, $978; Portage, $153,893; and Valparaiso, $126,014.

Ayres said that up until Monday, the additional MVH funds were not part of the proposal, but that the three-year, $150 million commitment was possible due to the higher than anticipated bid by Statewide Mobility Partners.

“Local officials have been crying for more dollars for local roads,” Ayres said, noting that the two mayors in his district -- Valparaiso and Crown Point -- have voiced support for Major Moves.

Although the local MVH funding is not guaranteed after three years, Ayres said it is possible with the investment earnings of the Toll Road funds, with estimates showing that the earnings would be greater than the revenues now generated annually by Toll Road fares.

Overall, Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves plan commits 34 percent of the Toll Road lease funds -- or $1.3 billion --- to the seven northern Indiana counties along the Toll Road. When asked why northern Indiana should be paying for Ohio River bridges or any other road projects elsewhere in the state, Ayres said the region would not be subsidizing the others’ projects. The reason: Twenty percent of Toll Road users are northern Indiana motorists. The rest, he said, are out of state drivers.

“We will be getting every dollar the northern tier puts in -- plus,” he said.

Still, Ayres said he is lobbying everywhere he can to increase northern Indiana’s share by more than the 34 percent.

The northern Indiana funding includes the $10 million commitment by the state over the next 10 years for the new Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. The law that created the RDA last year already guaranteed that the state would provide up to this amount for two years. But Ayres said that money is coming from Toll Road reserves, and it will dry up after two years. Without Major Moves, Ayres said the state contribution to the RDA is questionable.

“The future of the RDA will be imperiled,” he said.

Ayres also argued in support of the Toll Road lease plan as an investment in new jobs and the overall Northwest Indiana economy, citing projections that up to 7,000 new construction jobs in Northwest Indiana will be created by Major Moves. He added that Northwest Indiana lost 33 percent of its steel jobs in last five years and that to guarantee well-paying jobs will require a diversification of the economy.

Without the Toll Road lease, he said Indiana would find itself in a state of “business as usual,” with not enough funding for road projects already on the books and not enough state funding for local road projects.

He also said that the Toll Road revenues have not been distributed to border counties for the last nine years, since the Toll Road has been operating at a break-even point with all revenues going into its road maintenance. The lease proposal will require that Statewide Mobility Partners maintain the Toll Road at INDOT standards, which Ayres said INDOT has been unable to achieve.

In addition, the agreement will require that the private firm install the E-Z pass system on the Toll Road within two years. Ayres said he is working to get a discount for in-state EZ pass users.

Weighing in on the plan Tuesday was U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who praised the plan as the “first innovative approach” for highway funding in Indiana since the original construction of the Toll Road.

Lugar’s statement downplayed concerns about a foreign company operating the Toll Road, noting that a British-based firm manages the Indianapolis airport.

“Foreign investments coming to Indiana indicate our economic vitality and a bullish view of Indiana by those making the investment and for those we are competing to attract. Foreign-based firms are among the state’s leading employers in steel and automobiles. They have stimulated new investment and more better paying jobs for Hoosiers. The same will be true of this new $3.85 billion Toll Road lease. The money will be reinvested into the state, employing Hoosiers in construction jobs, resulting in a tremendous economic multiplying effect,” he said.

Ayres echoed that view, noting that Indiana has a Toyota and Suburu plant and that one of the two major steelmakers in Northwest Indiana -- Mittal Steel -- is foreign-owned.

As for the future of the Toll Road lease bill, H.B. 1008, Ayres said the bill will likely pass the House only with bi-partisan support. He said he stated on the House floor that he was disappointed that he has not seen any bipartisanship at this point. He added that four years ago, when the House was Democrat-controlled and the governor was a Democrat, he and other Republicans supported the state’s huge property tax overhaul.

Many of the details about the Toll Road lease and Daniels’ Major Moves plan can be found on the governor’s website, which can be linked via the main state website at www.IN.gov/

Posted 1/25/2006