| The Journal Gazette Fort Wayne, Ind. Oct. 14, 2015 By all the current media indications, roads and infrastructure will consume a good part of the coming Indiana General Assembly legislative session for my former colleagues. While this can be very healthy for the state, it would be unfortunate if the debate occurs outside of the realm of facts and historical accuracy. I am hopeful my 29 1/2 years of service in the Indiana Senate, most of them serving on and/or chairing the Transportation Committee, will give credence to my comments. From various news articles over the last several weeks and months, some media outlets and politicians insinuate Indiana has neglected its roads. That is demonstrably false. Certainly, we must continue to invest, but it should be considered an encore to 10 years of record investment, not an initial reaction to a crisis. During the past 10 years, our state has outranked almost every other for the growth of our capital infrastructure investment. In this age of fiscal restraint, other states are scrambling to find a way to do what Indiana has done over the last decade. State construction investments in the early 2000s averaged about $750 million per year. Since 2005, that number has exceeded $1 billion annually. During the past 10 years we have invested $11 billion in road preservation and construction, resurfaced half of all state roads (6,350 miles) and rejuvenated more than 1,000 bridges (one in five). The great irony of the I-65 shutdown near Lafayette is that it was caused by construction – not because we were neglecting the problem, but because we were fixing it. Thanks to the leasing of the Indiana Toll Road, this unprecedented investment was possible without a penny of new debt or a cent of new taxes. The benefits of the lease easily exceed $4 billion when you account for the $3.8 billion in upfront cash, millions of dollars in free maintenance included in the terms of the lease, and revenue generated from the trust fund created from the lease. And, all the revenue was reserved for long-term development of our infrastructure as opposed to day-to-day government funding. No state in the union did so much without new debt or new taxes. Because of the success of Major Moves, Indiana is viewed as a leader and innovator in infrastructure development and financing. Claims that we are in a crisis are unfounded. Still, as the primary construction window of Major Moves comes to a close, legislators are correct in wanting an encore. Standing still can never be an option. Infrastructure wears down with time and as demographics shift from community to community, so this is a problem that no state will ever be done "fixing." The area in most need of investment is our local roads and bridges. Information shows that only 4.7 percent of our state bridges are considered structurally deficient, well below the national average of 10 percent. County bridges, meanwhile, are more on par with the nation with 10.7 percent rated as structurally deficient. It’s hard to imagine that another miracle like the Toll Road Lease will come along. But all options have to be on the table if the legislature works for a round of encore investments to bring our local infrastructure up to where Major Moves brought our state roads. There are a lot of ideas floating out there. It will take some sort of tax and user fees re-evaluations, possibly based on inflation factors, and continued new public-private infrastructure partnerships to make a winning solution. Innovation, determination and foresight gave Indiana "Major Moves"; hopefully, we will see those again for the "Roads and Infrastructure Encore." |
