Senate could make changes to Daniels' highway plan

INDIANAPOLIS -- A top state senator said Thursday he is likely to seek changes in Gov. Mitch Daniels' highway plan, including the removal of some provisions that helped it win narrow passage in the House.\nThe bill, which would allow Daniels to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a private, Australian-Spanish consortium for 75 years in exchange for a $3.85 billion upfront payment, passed the Republican-controlled House on a 52-47 party-line vote. If the Senate makes any changes to the legislation, it would have to be reconsidered by the House and need at least 51 votes to pass.\nStill, Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, said he would remove a provision that would freeze toll rates at their current level for 10 years for residents of the seven counties in northern Indiana through which the toll road passes. House Republicans added the freeze to appease members whose districts include the toll road.\nBut Meeks told reporters he would strike it because it might violate the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by treating out-of-state motorists differently than those from Indiana.\nMeeks, speaking after his committee's initial meeting on the bill, said he also might remove a provision that would steer $100 million to a new regional authority to spend on economic development projects in three northeastern Indiana counties. That also was added to help win House passage, and two of the counties -- LaGrange and Steuben -- are in Meeks' Senate district.\nMeeks also questioned provisions that could result in an existing regional development authority in northwestern Indiana getting $100 million from the proposed toll lease.\nHe said he told some people in Steuben County over the weekend that "basically this whole bill is pork."\n"There seems to be an insatiable appetite for greed," he said.\nMeeks said he did not know how such changes would affect another House vote, but he was talking with House Republicans to determine what it would take to clear their chamber a second time.\nMeeks said he was still open to giving tax credits to Indiana residents who drive the toll road to help offset some of their costs. The Senate approved a bill that would do that, although Meeks said he also had questions about its constitutionality.\nRepublicans control the Senate 33-17, and their leader, Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, has said that prospects for the highway plan passing the chamber are good. But he said Wednesday that the Senate could make some changes.\nThe bill would not only allow the proposed toll road lease to go through, it would give the governor authority to forge other public-private partnerships on new highway and bridge projects. Daniels wants to make the planned extension of Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and Evansville a toll road and lease it, too.\nBut Meeks said he was considering whether to require legislative approval of future lease agreements, including one for I-69.\n"I don't want to handicap the administration of the Department of Transportation on projects," Meeks said. "They've had enough of that in the past. But I think there's enough debate that we may want to bring (any lease proposal for I-69) back to consider it later. I haven't made that decision yet."\nDuring Thursday's committee meeting, officials from the Daniels administration and the House sponsor of the bill made their pitch for the legislation and the proposed toll road lease.\nThey said the $3.85 billion from the proposed 75-year lease would help pay for hundreds of road and other transportation projects and create tens of thousands of jobs. In exchange for the upfront payment, the private venture would receive toll revenue over the term of the lease.\n"We got what we believe is a Powerball price for this," said State Budget Director Chuck Schalliol.\nMeeks plans at least two more committee meetings before the panel votes on whether to send the bill to the full Senate.