House Dems, GOP both claim victory on Illiana

Mar 2, 2010 — The Times

Dan Carden

Mar. 1, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- INDIANAPOLIS -- House Democratic and Republican leaders have both said the Illiana Expressway is a significant accomplishment of the legislative session, but they agreed that the process could have gone smoother.

Speaking in back-to-back news conferences last week, House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, and House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, each took credit for the jobs and economic development expected to come along with the proposed toll road connecting Interstate 65 in Lake County with Interstate 55 in Illinois.

"I count that as a real success for the General Assembly," Bosma said. "This is really a major move forward for Northwest Indiana."

The Indiana House voted 89-6 to approve Senate Bill 382 on Thursday. The measure, which initially allowed only the Illiana Expressway to be built as a public-private partnership, was amended to include similar projects on the Indiana-Kentucky border. Separately, the House also approved several tax cuts for businesses intended to create new jobs.

"Those jobs programs together will create 80,000 jobs," Bauer said. Approximately 30,000 of those jobs would be on the Illiana, according to a state study.

The final, nearly unanimous House vote on the Illiana belies the controversy caused by the project after it came to the House on Jan. 28 following a 48-0 vote for the expressway in the Senate.

State Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, tried to change the Illiana legislation to include new rules for all public-private partnership deals in Indiana. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and state Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, both said Austin's proposed regulations were too restrictive and would make it impossible to ever build the Illiana.

Dobis sided with House Republicans on a key vote against Austin's proposed changes, defeating them. Bauer then stripped Dobis of his leadership post in the Democratic-controlled House.

"It was unfortunate that Chet Dobis had to plant a flag in such a way that there were repercussions for him," Bosma said. "But his willingness to stand firm shook up enough people in the Democrat caucus to say, 'What's going on here? Why are we doing this?' " Bauer eventually handed control of the legislation to state Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City. Working with state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, Pelath managed to change the Illiana measure to address concerns raised at a Crown Point public hearing but did not go as far as Austin's proposed rewrite of public-private partnership law.

Bauer said that outcome was good enough for him.

"Sometimes people just want it their way, or no highway. But we wanted a compromise and it was a compromise," Bauer said.

The Illiana legislation is now back before the Republican-controlled Senate to see if it will agree to the changes made by the House. State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, can either accept the changes or send the measure to a conference committee where lawmakers from both chambers will try reach a compromise version of the legislation.

MILE MARKER: The Illiana Expressway legislation is now back before the Republican-controlled Senate to see if it will agree to the changes made by the House. If not, the bill would go to a House-Senate conference committee for final negotiations.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0129-42487073