Business leaders continue to support bold new mass transit initiatives for Northwest Indiana even after voters' resounding defeat of just such a measure on Tuesday.
Peoples Bank CEO David Bochnowski said all Northwest Indiana residents have to do is look at the northern and western Chicago suburbs to see what commuter train connections can do for a local economy, even during a recession.
"There's not proof until we do it," Bochnowski said. "But what we do know (is) the areas around Chicago that have tied themselves to the city by rail, they have all, relatively speaking, prospered during the downturn."
Bochnowski and others offered their opinions on local mass transit initiatives when asked by a Times reporter at Friday's annual Kelley School of Business Economic Outlook at Teibel's restaurant in Schererville.
William Hasse III, president of Hasse Construction, said voters were quick to count up the short-term cost of improving mass transit, namely the income tax, but not so quick to tally up the long-term benefits.
"We just didn't get common-sense consensus," he said of the vote results.
The commercial and residential construction that would follow an extension of the South Shore commuter railroad would not only generate construction jobs but also a permanent source of tax revenue for local government, Hasse said.
"All you have to do is go by other areas that have done this type of expansion and see what the spin-off has been," Hasse said.
The comments on mass transit by Bochnowski, Hasse and other businesspeople Friday all illustrated the divide that has opened up between the business community and rank-and-file voters on the issue. The Nov. 3 referendum on forming a multicounty regional transportation district with the ability to impose a 0.25 percent income tax went down hard at the polls in the two counties that held it.
In St. Joseph County it was defeated by an 18-1 margin and in Porter County by a 4-1 margin. Lake County and LaPorte County didn't even bother to hold the vote.
The district would have overseen an extension of the South Shore and regional bus service. The income tax was designed to fund both.
Indiana University Northwest Professor of Economics Don Coffin said there is no doubt amenities like mass transit can affect where people live and the jobs they choose to work. But he said an area needs a certain population density before projects like commuter rail will have the hoped-for effect.
"You need to have enough people that see trains as a viable option," Coffin said. "There have to be enough people already around so that when they are talking about the train they are not talking about empty cars to nowhere."
In fact, a lack of population density in Northwest Indiana outside of its major cities has been one roadblock in the way of the South Shore extension. An ongoing four-year feasibility study of the extension has yet to prove its cost-effectiveness, which will be the key to gaining 50 percent federal funding for its construction.
Linda Woloshansky, president and CEO at the Center of Workforce Innovations, said the lack of regional bus service in Northwest Indiana continues to keep people locked out of gainful employment.
"There are folks that really do have a difficult time in getting from county to county or even from north to south in the same county," Woloshansky said. "They could be productive workers but are limited because they don't have the transport others do."
The lack of good transit connections also costs agencies like WorkOne unemployment offices, which her nonprofit oversees. Woloshansky pointed out her agency and others probably could continue to offer high-quality service with fewer locations if mass transit could get people to them.
