By Patrick Guinane, Times of Northwest Indiana
patrick.guinane@nwi.com
INDIANAPOLIS | Voters in Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties will make an unexpected trip to the polls Nov. 3 to decide if they're willing to forfeit a sliver of their paychecks to fund bus and commuter rail service and build South Shore extensions to Lowell and Valparaiso.
Northwest Indiana legislators didn't want the referendum requirement, which is expected to cost county election boards $250,000 in Porter County and up to $1 million in Lake County. But the powerful chairman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee insisted voters decide whether to create an appointed board of mayors and elected county officials with the power to impose a local income tax of up to 0.25 percent.
"Let's convince the people and get their approval that this is what they want," said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. "I think it's a matter of public confidence in Northwest Indiana. The political people in Northwest Indiana do not have a high level of public confidence in their activities now. If they can get that (referendum) vote, then they've got a base to build from."
The proposed transit authority, included in the state budget approved last week, won't come to life unless voters in at least two of the counties approve the referendum this fall. But many fear the referenda could strike a fatal blow to a transit plan region lawmakers worked toward for years.
"I'm a supporter of the South Shore extension," said Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. "But as long as a referendum is required, it's just a pipe dream."
McDermott and other proponents of both the South Shore project and a regional system to rescue financially ailing municipal bus agencies in East Chicago, Gary and Hammond, worry voters will reject out of hand any tax hike put before them.
In counties that approve the referendum, the transit board would impose an income tax -- in 0.05 percent increments -- proportional to what is needed to cover bus and rail improvements and operations, though the regional bus system would cover only Lake and Porter counties.
"Everybody knows it will only be a quarter-percent for a short period," Lake County Council President Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, said of the income tax. "That's what folks will be thinking about (at the polls), and they're right."
Legislators would have to change state law for the tax to exceed 0.25. But Blanchard notes it was only a year ago that Illinois lawmakers hiked the sales tax in Chicago and the suburbs by a quarter percent to bail out cash-strapped transit agencies there.
And there's another wrinkle in the Northwest Indiana transit plan sure to incense taxpayers. The legislation stipulates that region residents must pay the transit income tax if they live, work, are registered to vote or have a car registered in a county that approves the referendum.
Suppose Porter County defeats the referendum and Lake and at least one other county vote to create the transit authority: That would mean every Porter County resident who works in Lake County still would have to pay the transit tax.
That's just one of several puzzling scenarios that could result from the November special election.
"If you get two counties on the extreme ends (Lake and St. Joseph) that vote for it and the two counties in the middle (Porter and LaPorte) don't, what happens to them?" asked Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville. "That (referendum requirement) was so haphazardly put together, it wasn't funny."
Kenley said he is willing to refine the transit legislation when lawmakers return to the Statehouse next year. But for that to be necessary, proponents will need to make a strong sales pitch to voters the next four months.
"It's complicated. I'm not sure how we're supposed to have a referendum in November," said a frustrated Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso. "But it's what we have, and I think we've got to get out and let folks know what their choices are. It's a good chance to save the (municipal) bus systems in Northwest Indiana."
For U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, who would be counted on to help secure the federal half of the $1 billion needed to build the Lowell and Valparaiso rail lines, the referendum as it relates to that project represents a monumental opportunity.
"We need to invest in ourselves to build a new economy and to create new job opportunities. This is a strong positive step in the right direction," said Visclosky, a Merrillville Democrat. "There is a (Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority) study that indicates over the next 30 years there will be tens of billions of additional economic activity in Northwest Indiana (if the rail lines are built). There will be 26,000 jobs created in Northwest Indiana."