Governor Daniels is spending approximately $260,000 on negative TV ads in Southern Indiana districts represented by Democrats who voted “no” on Toll Road privatization. Obviously Southern Indiana is the place to go for these ads since the Toll Road privatization plan, at its heart, is a matter of taxing Northern Indiana motorists to pay for road projects in the rest of the state. Residents of Southern Indiana are the least likely to travel the Toll Road and, therefore, least likely to care what happens to that piece of Indiana’s transportation infrastructure.
Niki Kelly has an article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on the ads as well as a discussion of conflicts between House and Senate versions of HB 1008 that need to be resolved before it can be passed. I found the following conflict particularly interesting:
A second provision causing concern is language requiring Daniels to come back to the General Assembly for specific authorization to build the I-69 extension as a toll road.
Southern Indiana lawmakers who support the construction of the road have rejected this concept. They acknowledge a toll road is the only way the road will get done and believe a vote specifically on that subject would turn into a referendum on the popularity of the project.
Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, vowed to vote “no†on any final compromise if the I-69 language isn’t fixed.
“That concerns me because I think again we shouldn’t be talking about whether we build it or not, we should be talking about when we build it and do it as soon as possible,†she said.
To me, this sounds for all the world like an abdication of responsibility by Senator Becker and others who do not want further legislative oversight of a project as significant as an I-69 extension. The article lists several other thorny issues that must be resolved. It will be interesting to see if Governor 37% can keep the wheels from coming off of this one.
Consider this item (quoting from the J-G) taken from the ads:
[The adds] accuse the members of “putting politics ahead of jobs†and doing what their “political boss in South Bend†told them to do – referring to House Minority Leader Rep. Pat Bauer, a vocal opponent of the lease deal. The Governor now stoops to fomenting open regional warfare to win this one. And to think how he played the “unity card” when he promised to try to get us all on one time zone.