Daniels confident highway plan will pass

INDIANAPOLIS -- Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels said he hopes to win at least some support from House Democrats for his highway and transportation plan, but has enough votes among GOP members to get it through the chamber and advance it to the Senate.\n"It really would be good to move the partisanship to other issues and join hands and take this huge step toward a better economic future," Daniels said.\nDaniels said Monday that he did not have a pledged vote from any of the 48 House Democrats, so enough support would mean commitments from at least 51 of the 52 Republicans who control the chamber.\nDemocrats have criticized the highway legislation on many fronts, especially the authorization it would give Daniels to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a private, Australian-Spanish consortium for 75 years for an upfront payment of $3.85 billion. They say it's a bad financial deal in the long run, and the state should not turn over such a major asset to a private venture, especially a foreign one.\nDaniels says the $3.85 billion would help pay for hundreds of highway and transportation projects around the state, and without it, many of them would languish for years. The bill, which must pass the House by Thursday to advance to the Senate, also would allow Daniels to make the planned extension of Interstate 69 through southern Indiana a toll road and lease it.\nThe state Democratic Party began airing radio commercials Monday opposing the plan. An offshoot of Daniels' election transition committee also is running its own radio ads asking listeners to tell their legislators to vote for the bill.\nDaniels on Monday listened to a pitch by Democratic Rep. Dave Crooks of Washington to put the highway legislation on hold so several public hearings on it could be held around the state. Crooks plans to propose that as an amendment to the bill, and it was possible that and other changes would be considered by the full House on Tuesday.\nCrooks said lawmakers and the public need more time to study the concept of leasing an interstate and the details of the proposed contract with the consortium, which would collect all the toll revenue and operate the highway in northern Indiana in exchange for its upfront payment.\n"I'm hoping that we can make sure that the whole state completely understands this concept and that we know what we are getting into because it is a 75-year commitment," Crooks said.\nHe said after the public hearings, Daniels could call the General Assembly into a special session to consider his highway plan and focus solely on it. The regular session is set to end by March 14.\n"It's unfortunate, but sometimes people have the perception that legislators are on the take," he said. "Well, I think we deserve that perception if we move this thing through at warp speed, which is even faster than what a corporation would consider a merger or a buyout."\nDaniels said he listened to Crooks but all but dismissed his proposal later when talking to reporters.\n"Delay is so often, as you know, a disguise for defeating something," Daniels said.\nThe supportive radio ads say Daniels' plan, dubbed "Major Moves," is the "jobs vote of a generation that is in the hands of your state legislators." It names several transportation projects that could be started or completed if passed.\nThe Democratic Party's radio spots are being aired in several cities and say trying to "sell our public roads to private, foreign companies" is a "major mistake."\n"At a time when Indiana is losing jobs overseas, we should keep control of our assets and not mortgage our children's future," the ad says. "Foreign companies and special interests are coming to Indiana for one reason: to make a lot of money. Money that should be kept in Indiana."\nCitizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, a group opposed to a new-terrain route for an extended I-69, also is airing radio ads in Indianapolis and northern Indiana opposing Daniels' plan.