Democrats criticize politics of I-69

Hoosiers will have to wait until January 2007 for a Statehouse vote on the fate of an already paved State Road 37 because the new pavement groundwork for an I-69 toll road from Evansville to Indiana was legislated as part of the Gov. Mitch Daniels "Major Moves" bill. But local Hoosiers say the fight to protect Mother Nature and the battle to preserve the Hoosier heartland have just begun.\nLocal Democratic leaders have reiterated their vote of "no" toward the I-69 toll road plan, and tens of thousands of Hoosiers affected by the proposal are up in arms but hopeful about protecting Indiana's long-term economic future. Hoosiers will have the opportunity this November to offer their vote of confidence about their elected officials' vision.\n"It's definitely clear, if you observe the political situation at the Statehouse now, we have one party that controls every branch of government. And really the only way to put some kind of checks and balances, at least have some hard questions asked, is to at least have one of the branches controlled by a different party," said State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-61, July 25. "I've often said that we've gotten a government suddenly in our statehouse that thinks it knows better than anybody else -- than the people it supposedly represents. And so we get the governor to make the pronouncement that (repaving and tolling state highways) is what we're going to do, and then the legislature seems to roll over and rubber stamp it, and then we get stuck with something we don't want."\nThere was no comment from Gov. Daniels' office by press time. \nBAD DEAL?\nA Republican-led House squeezed the Major Moves bill through sometime before dawn Feb. 1, and a Republican-led Senate passed Daniels' transportation legislation in March without public debate. As part of the Major Moves legislation, Daniels sold the 175-mile Indiana East-West toll road to an international consortium for $3.85 billion, thus handing over leasing rights for 75 years -- despite the fact that the Indiana Statehouse promised Hoosiers the initial tolling taxes beginning in 1956 would cease once the highway was completed more than 30 years ago.\n"Today, the majority in the Indiana House has taken a major move toward turning a bad deal into state law. House Bill 1008 is a fiscal disaster that will have long-term implications, not just for us, but for our children, our grandchildren our great-grandchildren," State Rep. Patrick Bauer, D-6, democratic leader of the Indiana House, stated Feb. 1. "The more we look at this program, the more it becomes apparent that Major Moves is a bad deal for the people of Indiana ... Selling our state's assets to the highest bidder is short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible. Privatization means no accountability to the public, and more focus on pure profits."\nAnd a corporate focus on making money off Indiana infrastructure is exactly what concerns Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads. Hoosiers, like all of the United States, can manage their own transportation systems as they have done throughout time without maximizing the profit margin of internationally owned investment banks through double-taxing citizens to drive along their already owned roadways, according to CARR literature.\nJOB QUESTIONS\n "Highways bring certain kinds of jobs -- service oriented, gas stations, hotels -- but Indiana needs other things to attract industry to the state. People have the perception and believe in the myth of highways as economic saviors -- there was a time when that was true but not any longer," said Thomas Tokarski, president of CARR. "One of the most cited reasons for why corporations chose to move to a specific place is 'the quality of life' in the place they want to relocate to. Companies also look for an educated workforce and people who can do the work -- if all we do is dig ditches that is all Hoosiers will be asked to do."\nStatehouse officials have accused Daniels of bending the Statehouse's will to meet demands set forth by construction contractors and others who benefit from taxpayer dollars devoted to transportation infrastructure like asphalt. In a Jan. 23 Major Moves statement, Daniels said his office took "just 117 days to conduct a complex financial process that typically takes nine months or even longer."\nTokarski said more than 140,000 Hoosier signatures stating their opposition to Major Moves meant nothing to the governor or he would have tried to generate a better solution to fund hundreds of much needed and overdue statewide transportation projects.\n"We are losing our democracy, and the reason we are losing it is the politicians are befriending big campaign contributions. They don't care what happens to the citizens of the state," he said. "We cannot let Daniels get away with it, and if people realize what's happening they need to start demanding candidates follow democratic principles and not big business. People are not going to rise up because they have been beaten down so long ... Politicians will only start paying attention when they start losing elections."\nRep. Pierce said the decreased benefits and increased costs of an I-69 toll road revealed in the recent Indiana Department of Transportation Tier 1 Reevaluation are enough reason for Southern Indiana Hoosiers to band together to vote new leadership into the Statehouse this November.\n"I think the most important thing is for us not to give up, to use all of the processes we have available to us, whether it is commenting on the Tier 1 Reevaluation, whether it's getting involved in the Tier 2 studies that are going on right now, whether it's trying to change the political make-up in Indianapolis, whether it's organizing to send a message to the governor that we just don't favor this toll road," he said. "And I think we also need to do a better job of explaining to people along the corridor all the way to Evansville why the toll road is not going to be a good situation for them either. The leaders of the Evansville area want this road in any way they can get it, and they've kind of rolled over and said 'If it has to be a toll road we'll accept that.' They need to think a little bit harder about what a toll road would really mean for that area, whether it will really bring them the benefits they think they'll get"