INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana transportation officials said they are pleased Indiana will get extra flexibility to spend nearly $1 billion per year in federal transportation funding, and won’t be penalized for leasing a toll highway, under a measure that Congress approved last week.
The legislation authorizes $120 billion in spending for these programs throughout the country over the next 27 months. Part of the cost will be funded by continuing the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4 cents-a-gallon diesel tax already in place. Another $19 billion will come from transfers from other programs, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Indiana will see approximately $923 to $930 million each year. Twenty-five percent of those funds will go to Indiana cities, towns and counties for transportation projects, according to INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield. Another 5 percent of the money can now be shifted from other purposes to road construction.
“INDOT believes that the bill is good for Indiana and its infrastructure,” Wingfield said.
The bill was a compromise between House Republican and Senate Democratic lawmakers. Republican U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon of Newburgh was one of the lawmakers involved in the joint House-Senate conference committee that hashed out the compromise.
Bucshon helped eliminate a provision by Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Dick Durbin which would have penalized Indiana for its Major Moves program – the 75-year lease of a northern Indiana toll road in exchange for $3.85 billion up-front cash that’s being used for road projects now. Bucshon pushed the group to eliminate the provision that would have blocked Indiana from receiving $42 million in funds for the toll road’s miles of highway.
“I was proud to represent Indiana’s transportation needs on this conference committee and while the bill is not perfect, it is much better than existing law and includes major victories for Indiana,” Bucshon said in a statement after the compromised bill was finalized. “Indiana will see an increase in federal transportation funding, supporting projects like Interstate 69, and over 28,000 Hoosier jobs are directly supported by this bill.”
Democratic Congressman Joe Donnelly and Republican Congressman Todd Rokita wrote a letter to the conference committee urging the same move.
“During the negotiations about the highway bill, I was able to work with my Republican colleagues effectively to achieve results that benefit Indiana,” Donnelly said in a statement. “Hoosiers want to see Congress work together, break through gridlock and focus on job creation. I am pleased that the new version of the bill includes changes that help Indiana. These transportation resources create jobs by funding projects to repair roads and bridges.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, Gov. Mitch Daniels commended Bucshon for his work on the negotiation of the legislation.
“He did a tremendous job. If it was not for him we would have been penalized in a very unfair and unwise way,” Daniels said.
The legislation also created a weight exemption for recreational vehicles. RVs are no longer required to have a double rear axle-the same as busses. The second rear axle adds $10,000 to the price of an RV, so the elimination of that requirement will reduce the price of RVs overall – important to the Elkhart, Ind. area, where RV manufacturing is the centerpiece of the local economy.
- Suzannah Couch
thestatehousefile.com/changes-free-up-money-for-roads/5702/
Discussion
Sign Up for Updates
