Faith and environmental groups are teaming up to resurrect the idea of using a 1 percent food and beverage tax to fund regional bus service in Northwest Indiana.
"We want to talk about using a penny out of a dollar spent at a restaurant or tavern to provide a regional bus system that transports residents to jobs, medical facilities and grocery stores so they can provide for themselves and their families," said Rev. Dwight Gardner, president of the Northwest Indiana Federation.
The federation will be one of four groups hosting a public forum on region busing at 6:30 p.m., Monday at Indiana University Northwest's Savannah Center Auditorium. The other groups are Northwest Indiana Environmental Justice Partnership, Duneland Sierra Club and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 517.
The purpose of the forum will be to gather input from the public on how best to create and fund a regional bus system, Gardner said.
Previous attempts to get the Lake County Council to pass a 1 percent food and beverage tax to fund regional buses have failed. The staunchest opponent of the move has been the South Shore Convention & Visitors Authority and its CEO Speros Batistatos.
"There is no rational correlation between a tax on restaurants and funding buses," Batistatos said on Friday, in restating his organization's opposition.
The convention and visitors authority maintains if a food and beverage tax is ever enacted, it should be used to fund tourism-related activities.
Gardner said the intent of the faith and environmental groups in holding a public forum is not to get involved in a new debate over the food and beverage tax, but to find a way to fund transportation to get people access to jobs.
"It's an opportunity to both inform and hear from the many people who are the most in need of transportation," Gardner said.
Local bus systems in Hammond, Gary and East Chicago are struggling to survive in the face of budget cuts that came about as a result of state-mandated property tax caps.
A proposal by State Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, to fund regional bus and commuter rail service with a four-county income tax has met opposition in the Indiana General Assembly and passage looks unlikely this year.
