INDIANAPOLIS | Just weeks after clashing with lawmakers over a local road funding proposal, state transportation Commissioner Karl Browning plans to resign.
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels issued a statement Wednesday that Browning will exit for the private sector at the end of the month. Daniels has named Michael Reed, executive director of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, as the next Indiana Department of Transportation commissioner.
Browning displayed what House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, described as a "chip on his shoulder" during a Jan. 15 meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats irked the Republican administration by debuting legislation that, among other things, would have funded local road projects by gutting INDOT's budget. Browning complained that the partisan ploy delayed him from attending the visitation for a highway worker killed in a fall.
"Instead, I'm here talking about a bill that I can't imagine has any possibility of seeing the light of day," Browning said at the time. "If it does have a possibility, I feel sorry for the rest of us in this state."
After the hearing, lawmakers from both parties complained about BrowningÂ’s demeanor. State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, said he was dismayed by the lack of civil discourse he witnessed.
Soliday threatened to sue INDOT last year after he and Browning clashed over an Illiana Expressway feasibility study that the representative felt the department was trying to tilt toward a private tollway model.
The latest spat with lawmakers apparently began in December.
As The Times first reported, Browning told legislators the governorÂ’s vaunted Major Moves highway construction program was running a $400 million deficit because of slumping gas tax revenues and investment returns from Indiana Toll Road lease proceeds. Browning angered Democratic lawmakers by saying the state could use proceeds from a proposed federal stimulus package to close the Major Moves deficit.
Browning took office in November 2006.
