The hard reality is tough. Very tough.
The state holds the power to choke off Bloomington and Monroe County in ways people haven’t even thought about, publicly at least — and by all appearances, is prepared to use that power.
If the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization refuses to accept Interstate 69 into its transportation improvement program for 2014-15, which actually begins July 1, 2013, the state will not approve the transportation plan.
That means there will be no conduit through which federal transportation dollars can flow to the city and county level, regardless of what the money was planned for.
As spelled out this week to members of a planning organization subcommittee, almost $6 million in road project funds and close to $20 million in money that keeps our buses on the road will be gone. This is not discretionary, as we understand it. No transportation plan for fiscal 2014 — one that’s approved by both the state and the local metropolitan planning organization — means no money.
Projects are one thing. They can be delayed or canceled and the world would not end. In fact, some opponents of I-69 would be happy to see several of those die anyway. But the money for the buses is a different story. The buses — city, IU and rural transit — are so dependent on federal money they could grind almost to a halt (one estimate has city services cut by about 60 percent) throwing not only student commuters into a frenzy, but truly wrecking the lives of people who depend on the bus every day to get to work, to the doctor, to the grocery store.
Again, we urge members of the metropolitan planning organization to reconsider their rejection of I-69. It is especially time for one member, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, to stand up and lead the way out of disaster. Many believe I-69 is the disaster. But it is becoming more and more clear the real disaster is to ignore the state’s power in this dispute and to fail to recognize the reality of a road that is already stretching toward the county line.
It’s OK to oppose I-69 with all your heart. It’s not OK to wreak havoc on so many lives with a refusal to at least minimally cooperate with the state on this matter.
And for those breathlessly awaiting the next governor as the person who will stop I-69: Republican frontrunner Mike Pence is on record as a strong supporter of finishing the project. And John Gregg, the Democrat frontrunner, while at least publicly hedging his bets, is from Sandborn in Knox County, in the heart of southwestern Indiana, where completion of the interstate has had strong support. MPO member Mark Stoops had it exactly wrong when he said the next governor would not want to spend the money necessary to complete I-69. In fact, the next governor would not want to be the person responsible for dead-ending the highway in a remote spot somewhere southwest of Bloomington.