MUNSTER | For the fourth straight month, the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission came under heavy fire from flood-weary homeowners, one of whom urged the commissioners to chain themselves to the desk of the General Assembly's speaker of the House to gain the Legislature's attention.

More than 100 people, most of them impassioned homeowners, filled the Munster Town Hall meeting room to vent at the commission as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the delays in the decades-long federal levee project, now in its final stages but devoid of the finances to finish the project.

Munster resident Rey Candelaria, vice president of the Wicker Park Neighborhood Association, challenged "each and every one" of the commissioners to mount a concerted effort aimed at wresting the necessary money from the Legislature.

Discussion of finances dominated Wednesday's meeting, but not enough to satisfy a furious Munster resident, Steve Enger, who demanded to know why the budgets discussed by the commission were not made available to everyone attending the meeting. A project description and cost estimates, however, were on display for review by the public.

Commission member Ron McAhron, deputy director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, sought to calm the waters by assuring anxious homeowners the commission is "looking under every rock" for the cash to complete the levee system.

In December, the Senate Budget Committee had told McAhron it will allow only its typical $1 million annual appropriation until the commission returns with detailed financial information.

The commission on Wednesday adopted a 90-day budget of some $1.8 million and reviewed the components of a $13.5 million long-term budget estimate. With numbers now in hand, McAhron said he will meet with state and local officials on the issue before returning before the Senate Budget Committee.

Unknown to the commission at the time of Wednesday's meeting, Sen. Frank Mrvan Jr. had earlier in the day introduced a bill putting the figure at $15 million as his own best estimate.

"I can't believe the (Senate) Appropriations Committee or even the governor would be callous enough to (deny that)," Mrvan said. "The governor was there (during the floods), and he saw what was going on."

Mrvan also said he will contact Gov. Mitch Daniels asking him to reconsider the administration's opposition to diverting state sales tax dollars toward completion of the levee. "I'm going to write him a letter explaining it and begging him," Mrvan said, adding he also will contact the state's two U.S. senators about the potential of receiving money from President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus package.

McAhron said other options include obtaining a grant from flood disaster funds and also a new proposal from Hammond City Council President Dan Repay, who on Wednesday suggested asking the state to redirect more than $11.4 million in gaming admission taxes from the horse racing industry to the flood control project.

Earlier in the day, Repay said the idea came to him when he realized diverting sales taxes may not be a viable option. McAhron said the option presented by Repay did indeed have merit.

Times staff writer Patrick Guinane contributed to this report.