Daily Journal of Johnson County

Gov. Mitch Daniels:

Johnson County, especially the Franklin area, is getting the shaft from you. And now it looks like the state legislature, too.

Just four months ago, you proposed entering a contract with a private company to build and maintain a toll road around part of Indianapolis. In Johnson County, the road would be built near Franklin.

Now, with lightning speed, the General Assembly is closer to giving you what you want: the authority to hire a private firm to build the Indiana Commerce Connector, as you call it.

What you are asking legislators and others to support defies good business sense, good public policy sense and just plain common sense.

You have few details. You have no studies. You don't even know if there is a need for such a road. Nothing. No one has even done a cursory examination of the economic, traffic, social or environmental impact of the 75-mile long road from Pendleton to Mooresville.

You mentioned jobs would be created. No proof again. You said traffic congestion would dissipate. Again, no specifics.

Then you mentioned Interstate 69 and got closer to the truth.

Let's just call this toll road proposal what it is: A way to help pay for I-69.

So far, your proposal has little to do with what is best for our community. With so little information and so little time, we can't even begin to make that determination. Imagine a business asking a loan officer to approve a $1.5 billion long-term deal with no supporting studies or evidence it would even work or be profitable. A banker would rightly laugh them out of the office.

Governor, we have to give you credit. The way you have gone about this is politically masterful.

You didn't let this project stand on its own merits in the state legislature, which would have been the right thing to do.

You tied it to paying for I-69. That means the support of southern Indiana legislators is almost guaranteed.

Then you hooked it up with the long-asked-for Illiana Expressway in northern Indiana. That means the support of northern Indiana legislators is almost guaranteed.

You've even got some local public officials to spin this for you. Some jumped on the bandwagon even before they talked to their constituents or reviewed any studies. Their comments that the proposal is "just a concept" or "just calls for studies" are wrong.

Make no mistake, Senate Bill 1 gives the governor authority to hire a private company to build and maintain the toll road. You will do your studies. You will get your requests for proposals. But no other legislative approval would be necessary. The political machinations may be clever, but they short-circuit good judgment.

Governor, it's not necessarily the privatization efforts we oppose. You can talk to private companies about your toll road idea without legislative approval at this point. You've done it before. What is the rush to give you this authority if the toll road is just an idea worth exploring?

Moreover, we are not the stereotypical not-in-my-back yard crowd some have portrayed us to be. Residents, for a good price, have sold lots of land for public and private projects. We've made sacrifices for the greater good.

And we're not naive to the ways of economic development either.

We've got an interstate. We've got vacant industrial land. We've got a plan that targets areas for growth.

We also know that we need more than roads to make our community attractive to high-tech and other companies. Often, executives want a good quality of life, including great recreation facilities, good schools, low crime rates and livable neighborhoods.

They might not want to live a stone's throw from a toll road. We have to think about that and the quality of life for existing residents too. A good cross-section of our community is not just saying no to say no.

Even our most basic and initial questions are legitimate: What types of jobs would the road bring? How would it relieve congestion? What about non-compete clauses tied to the county building and improving roads?

The toll road will be paid for without tax money, but who will pay for county roads that dead end at the toll road or other expenses that the city or county may incur because of the road? Who pays for roads and sewers, for more emergency workers and the training they will need to handle accidents and hazardous material spills?

Here's more: Who will pay to fix the drainage problems that often come with new roads; how would it change the environment; what are the tax implications; would the state forcibly take land; what would it mean to our ability to attract high technology businesses; what would this mean to our community?

Governor, this isn't like the Honda plant you helped bring to Decatur County. The mayor in Greensburg can easily agree to spend thousands of dollars on roads and sewers because he is guaranteed a return for his community: thousands of good-paying jobs, jobs with good benefits, jobs families can live on.

You are not giving us even half a guarantee that the road will bring anything more than lower-paying warehouse jobs. Frankly, we have plenty of those.

We're saying halt because we need more than a hope and a prayer and a few minor details to sign off on a road that could forever change our community.

You want us to say yes to mostly rural land becoming paved over with multiple lanes of asphalt. You want us to say yes to big semitrailers whizzing through, heading to destinations elsewhere. You want us to say yes to the fast-food restaurants, truck stops and convenience stores usually associated with superhighways.

No.

Our community is just too important to us to blindly and quickly say yes.

Our community just might need to do some soul-searching. Do we want to become a place where vehicles pass through? Do we want to become covered with the usual offerings of convenience stores and warehouses? Can and should we aspire to be something more?

Governor, you are making us the sacrificial lamb for I-69. You are throwing us under the bus, or your RV. You are making us the dumping ground in the middle of a project in the north and one largely for the south.

Governor, listen to us. You have said you won't move forward with the toll road if the communities near it say no. Until we know more, we say no.

This is our community, and we deserve better.
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