Daniels signs bill to help northwest Indiana, build stadium

Gov. Mitch Daniels signed bills Wednesday that are designed to expand transportation and growth in northwest Indiana and finance a new stadium for the NFL's Colts and expansion of the convention center in downtown Indianapolis.\nDaniels played a leading role in negotiating both economic development packages, which were combined in one bill that Daniels signed during a trip to Gary. He has said that northwest Indiana must be involved in the state's economic comeback, and it was a reason he signed the bill in Gary.\nHe returned to Indianapolis later Wednesday to sign legislation that provides several tax breaks for businesses. He also signed a bill that establishes the office of inspector general, a post he created by executive order, in law. In certain circumstances, it could result in that official having authority to try cases of alleged government corruption.\nThe bill signed in Gary will create a Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, a seven-member board charged with developing and funding expansions of the Gary/Chicago airport, regional rail and bus transportation projects and improvements to the Lake Michigan shoreline.\nThe authority could raise more than $25 million per year from such sources as local gambling money and the Indiana Toll Road. Daniels said it should fuel an economic revival in the area that would benefit the entire state.\n"In two years, I hope that through local cooperation, decisions have been made and the first earth moved on projects important to the region," Daniels said in a news release.\nThe new law also puts Indianapolis on course to get a new 63,000-seat, retractable-roof stadium for the Colts and expand the convention center. The projects could cost more than $900 million, to be paid for largely through proposed local tax increases in central Indiana counties. They would include food and beverage tax increases in Indianapolis and its seven neighboring counties.\nLocal governments in central Indiana are expected to meet in the next few months to act on the proposed increases. Daniels helped sell the regional financing plan, and he said Tuesday that he continue lobbying local officials if necessary to get the increases approved.\nDaniels has made two appointments to a new Indiana Convention and Stadium Authority that will oversee design and construction, and building could begin this summer.\nAmong other things, the pro-business incentives in a separate bill Daniels signed would phase in property taxes on new small business investments over a three-year period, allow smaller businesses to receive payroll tax credits, phase out sales taxes on research and development equipment purchased after June 30, 2007, The tax reduction would be 50 percent on such equipment from June 30 of this year until then, and expand sales tax exemption for certain equipment used by motor racing teams.