Online Only: Daniels withdraws toll-road proposals

INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Mitch Daniels withdrew virtually all of his highway bypass toll-road proposals Saturday, telling legislative leaders they had proven too unpopular with the public.\nDaniels, however, asked lawmakers to still consider an approximately 10-mile section of the proposed Illiana Expressway in northwest Indiana, between Interstate 65 and the Illinois state line.\n“It is clear to me that we are far from the degree of consensus that is necessary before the embarking on major public works projects of high local impact,” he said in letters to House Transportation Committee Chairwoman Terri Austin, D-Anderson, and Sen. Thomas Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.\nThe unusual Saturday announcement from the governor’s office signaled he was conceding defeat on his two toll-road proposals in the face of opposition that he initially had acknowledged March 15. A series of public meetings since then on the proposed 75-mile Indiana Commerce Connector around part of Indianapolis showed the opposition remained as strong as ever.\n“The overwhelming sentiment was opposition to this proposal or a complete and thorough study,” Austin said Saturday. “Additional information was needed before it moved forward.”\nEven the portion of the Illiana Expressway that Daniels still wants considered might be relegated to a legislative study committee, she said.\nAustin said the governor’s retreat on the toll-road proposals gives lawmakers “an opportunity to take a more in-depth look at mass transit in Indiana,” such as commuter trains. She is sponsoring a bill that would require the Indiana Department of Transportation to study the feasibility of mass transit in six different regions of the state.\nThe GOP-led Indiana Senate had approved a bill to give Daniels the authority to seek private funding to build the toll-roadway projects, but the legislation faced a rocky road to passage in the Democratically controlled House of Representatives.\nAt a House hearing on mass transit that Austin helped organize last week, some lawmakers said privately that the meeting was only intended to divert attention away from Daniels’ toll-road proposals.\nTwo state representatives from northwest Indiana said earlier this month that residents of that area opposed the Illiana Expressway, which would stretch 50 miles from the Illinois state line to Interstate 94 in Porter County. A legislative forum sponsored by Citizens Against the Privatized Illiana Toll Road drew a crowd of about 1,000 people.\n“The people of the affected areas have spoken clearly enough to persuade me that these ideas are, at best, premature,” Daniels said in his letters Saturday.\n“By contrast, an Illiana bypass from I-65 west seems to be broadly supported and can, I hope, be given the chance to move forward,” the letters said.\nThe Associated Press left telephone messages Saturday seeking comment from Wyss and the House Democratic leadership.\nWhen Daniels announced the Commerce Connector proposal in November, he said the state could collect about $1 billion by allowing a private entity to pay to build and operate it as a toll road looping east and south of Indianapolis. That money could help the state pay for the I-69 extension from Indianapolis to Evansville, he said at the time.\nDaniels’ press secretary, Jane Jankowski, said Saturday’s announcement will not affect the I-69 project, construction of which is due to begin in fall 2008.\nThe state has $700 million in the bank from the Indiana Toll Road lease to pay for its share of I-69 construction from Evansville to the Crane area west of Bedford, she said, adding the Daniels administration will have to find new ways to come up with additional funding.