The Indiana General Assembly dropped the ball on approving a biennial budget, but it also failed to provide a solution to the public transportation dilemma facing the region and the state.

Public transportation has been in a meltdown in Northwest Indiana. Already, Northwest Indiana Community Action has gotten out of the bus business, stranding passengers who used to rely on the agency to provide on-demand bus service in Lake County.

Those buses have been sold already.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. has had a change of heart about shutting down the Hammond Transit System, funding it for the first six months of this year on casino money.

Hammond Transit Director Keith Matasovsky has asked the mayor and City Council for another infusion of casino revenue.

Indiana Transportation Association President Kent McDaniel has a gloomy prediction for state mass transportation funding during the upcoming special session of the Indiana General Assembly.

"The good news is that more legislators are talking about public transit than I have ever seen," McDaniel said. "The bad news is that in the end, they didn't do anything about it."

No one knows what will come out of the special session of the Indiana General Assembly, but regional mass transit must not continue to collapse.

If it takes an infusion of casino money in the local communities to keep the buses running, so be it. But don't let the service end.

Transportation infrastructure, including public transportation, is an essential government service. It must not be ignored by the General Assembly.