By VICKI URBANIK

Even before the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority was formed less than two years ago, some questioned whether it would be able to accomplish its bold vision of expanding regional air, rail and bus transportation.

Those concerns have hardly gone away.

In a letter to State Sen. Vic Heinold, Porter County Commissioner President Robert Harper questions the need for additional funding sources to carry out the RDA’s goals of improving the Gary/Chicago Airport, expanding the South Shore rail service to Lowell and Valparaiso, and establishing a regional bus service.

“When this plan was first mentioned, there was no talk about future funding sources or additional funding sources. Now I keep reading article after article in the paper saying that the members of the RDA may be looking for additional funding sources,” Harper wrote in a letter on his law office stationery.

“In my opinion no one on the Porter County Council that voted for this bill did so with the thought that they were going to create something that would need additional funding sources,” Harper wrote.

Such comments perplexed RDA Executive Director Tim Sanders.

The RDA is currently funded through a mix of state funds and contributions from Porter and Lake counties. Sanders stressed that he does not want to minimize the importance of the local funding, but noted that those funds will total $285 million over a 10-year period -- hardly enough to cover projects like the estimated $640 million expansion of the Gary Airport or the $902 million extension of the South Shore rail line.

But Sanders said that reality was already known before the RDA was established.

“I don’t know that anyone should be surprised by that,” he said, adding that “big, important projects tend to be expensive.”

Sanders emphasized that the RDA has no power to tax, doesn’t want the taxing authority and has not asked for new taxes. He said he doesn’t know of anyone talking about taxes -- except for Harper.

But Harper cited reports that the Regional Bus Authority might be seeking new regional taxes in order to offset the estimated $14 million a year shortfall for the bus service. The RBA is a separate entity from the RDA, but the RDA has funded an RBA study and has the bus service as one of its main objectives.

Sanders said the RDA will need to “be a little creative” in how it leverages its available funds to carry out its projects.

“I don’t think any of us is giving up on any of the projects,” he said, adding that the purpose of the RDA was to embark upon large-scale initiatives and “not nibble around the edges.”

He noted a major new commuter rail service in Arizona that, despite its high price tag, was deemed as critical for orderly growth. That project is being funded through a state bond issue.

The RDA recently released its first state-mandated report, in which it outlined the need for, and projected costs, of the airport expansion, South Shore rail extension, regional bus service, and the shoreline improvement project known as the Marquette Plan.

Exactly how the RDA should fund some of its projects is expected to be spelled out in a new report that might be released at the RDA’s Feb. 20 meeting, set for 11 a.m. at the Purdue Technology Center, 9800 Connecticut Drive, Crown Point.

Harper’s letter details concerns with two of the RDA projects -- the South Shore expansion and the regional bus service.

His letter notes that it has since been discovered that this region doesn’t quality for a federal match for the estimated $902 million South Shore extension due to population projections and that the rail extension might not have the support of the Canadian National Railroad.

His letter also cites the RBA’s projected shortfall of $13.9 million a year, and that state funding for the RDA is expected to end after 10 years. “Where was the rest of the money for this bus service going to come from?” he asked.

“I wonder why someone did not figure out some of these things before this was all presented to the general public and the Porter County Council. If these things had been known the RDA would have never passed in Porter County,” he wrote.

Posted 2/9/2007