INDIANAPOLIS | State lawmakers unveiled plans Tuesday to create a regional transportation district that would impose local income taxes to fund bus and commuter rail service in Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties.
The proposal, offered by Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, could provide the $350 million over 25 years that Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, is seeking to extend South Shore lines to Lowell and Valparaiso. And municipal bus agencies, including those in East Chicago, Gary, Hammond and the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority, would dissolve Jan. 1 and be replaced by a four-county system.
"I think we're negotiating a concept that has a great deal of value for Northwest Indiana," Kenley said. "Representative Dobis and I, along with Congressman (Pete) Visclosky, did meet in the governor's office to discuss this possibility about three weeks ago. This is reflective of my thinking. It's not endorsed by the governor at this point."
RBA Executive Director Tim Brown said he attended a hearing on the legislation but had not read the bill as of Tuesday. Brown said it's too early to fully tell what the legislation would mean to his agency.
The legislation, House Bill 1607, would create a nine-member transportation district to be governed by one county council member and one commissioner from each of the four counties and a tie-breaking chairman appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels.
The board would have the authority to impose a local income tax of up to 0.25 percent in each of the four counties, which combined could raise up to $52 million a year without prior approval from county councils.
"I think any representative from Porter County that supports this bill is selling the county down the drain," fumed Porter County Commissioner Bob Harper, a Democrat. "It's a horrid piece of legislation."
But Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, and other region legislators familiar with Kenley's plan called it a good start toward addressing local transit needs when property tax caps are biting city budgets. But lawmakers realize the income tax provision will draw scorn.
"I'm sure we'll hear from our constituents," said Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary.
While the income tax is likely to prove unpopular, the transit legislation would save nearly $4 million a year in property taxes by abolishing the Gary Public Transit Corp. Other bus agencies, including the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority, don't levy property taxes directly, though their elimination would ease city budgets.
Dobis, who has sought South Shore expansion funding since 2007, said he hopes the transit plan can be massaged into a final deal before lawmakers adjourn April 29.
"It's the Yogi Berra theory: It ain't over 'til it's over," Dobis said. "I'm more hopeful than I was at this point last year."
