La PORTE — Officials from both La Porte and Lake counties are preparing to make a joint bid for the Indiana Toll Road.
But before they can make their play, they have to get approval from their respective commissioners and councilmen.
On Thursday, commission presidents David Decker from La Porte County and Roosevelt Allen from Lake County announced their intention to bring an interlocal cooperation agreement before their respective commissioners and councilmen for the creation of an entity to bid on the toll road lease.
According to a press release issued by the commissioners, the agreement would allow for a not-for-profit entity called the Northern Indiana Toll Road Authority, or NITRA, to issue toll road revenue bonds and bid for the lease of the roadway. These bonds would be "non-recourse" bonds, meaning they would entail no liability for taxpayers if toll road revenue failed to cover the cost of the bonds.
This comes after the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, a private consortium operating the toll road, filed for bankruptcy last year.
La Porte County commissioners have been addressing the toll road since October of 2014 when they expressed frustration over the $3.8 billion paid to the state by the consortium for the lease. This money largely went to roads in Central and Southern Indiana instead of La Porte County and surrounding areas.
Commissioners argued that those residents in Southern and Central Indiana rarely used the road or contributed to the tolls, so they should not have received the amount of money they did. It was also noted that the county, along with the rest of Northwest Indiana, received none of the $400 million of new road money this past session.
In the press release on Thursday, it was noted that NITRA would be overseen by a board of directors comprised of representatives from both counties.
In the release, Decker said the counties should be highly competitive in the bid process because of the municipal debt-financed bids they would receive.
"If successful," he said, "NITRA would provide an annual 'founders' fee to each county in the sum of $5 million apiece and a split of any excess revenue to be used for grant-making by the NITRA board for a substantial portion of the remaining 67 years of the lease."
The NITRA board of directors, which would be overseen by representatives from both counties, local area professionals and a member from whichever operator was chosen to manage and maintain the road, would ensure a public voice for the operation of the road.
The interlocal agreement and related documents would come before La Porte County Commissioners on March 4 and the county council on March 11. The same documents would also go before the Lake County commissioners on March 9, and the Lake County Council on March 10.
In a previous story in The La Porte County Herald-Argus, it was noted that no other counties have joined the consortium, although they could join at a later date, forfeiting the benefits of being a charter member.
St. Joseph, Elkhart and LaGrange counties have all rejected the consortium.
At a November 2014 meeting of the La Porte County Council, it was mentioned that the toll road hasn't turned a profit in its 60 years of existence. It was noted, however, that this was under the old toll operating structure.