Pro-Illiana Spin from Post-Tribune
18 March 2007 06:23 AM | Indiana, NW Indiana and Porter
County
Rich James and the Post-Tribune try to spin opinion in favor of the
Illiana Toll Road. I guess that is an op-ed
piece even though it is not plainly marked.
Anyway, Rich James misses the point:
People are wary of a "privatized" toll road. People are still upset about how the Indiana Toll Road was leased to a private company for 75 years and they don't want a repeat with the Illiana. It also does not sit well with voters for the state to take land and then turn it over to a private company. Based on our previous experience with the Indiana Toll Road lease, many people are just not willing to trust Mitch Daniels with the authority to start negotiating lease and construction agreements with private firms before a proper study has been done to see if the Illiana toll road needs to actually be extended east of I-65.
Nobody has looked at other alternatives like a state owned rail corridor that would separate fast freight, passenger and commuter trains around Lake Michigan. Nobody has looked at the environmental impact, water shed impact, and yet Mitch Daniels wants to have carte blanche authority to proceed before any of these studies are done. Why?
People have a good sense when they are getting the bums rush. SB-1 is the bums rush.
I don't trust Mitch Daniels. He pretty much used up any trust I had in him with the Toll Road Lease and the way he tried to sneak SB-1 through the legislature.
Here's my bottom line: if all the studies say the Illiana toll road needs and can be built then it should be built as a toll road, built, run and managed by the State of Indiana for the public good. People might be willing to surrender their property for the common good but not to be coerced by the power of the state for the benefit of a private enterprise.
How you go about building the case for great public works is just as important as the project itself.
Anyway, Rich James misses the point:
While the land issue is real, all the opposition talk about foreign operators, environmental concerns and the fact that the road would be a toll-way is little more than window dressing. It's like piling on once the tackle has been made.I don't really care who runs the road. And there wasn't a peep when foreign firms bought Mittal and Amoco.
People are wary of a "privatized" toll road. People are still upset about how the Indiana Toll Road was leased to a private company for 75 years and they don't want a repeat with the Illiana. It also does not sit well with voters for the state to take land and then turn it over to a private company. Based on our previous experience with the Indiana Toll Road lease, many people are just not willing to trust Mitch Daniels with the authority to start negotiating lease and construction agreements with private firms before a proper study has been done to see if the Illiana toll road needs to actually be extended east of I-65.
Nobody has looked at other alternatives like a state owned rail corridor that would separate fast freight, passenger and commuter trains around Lake Michigan. Nobody has looked at the environmental impact, water shed impact, and yet Mitch Daniels wants to have carte blanche authority to proceed before any of these studies are done. Why?
People have a good sense when they are getting the bums rush. SB-1 is the bums rush.
I don't trust Mitch Daniels. He pretty much used up any trust I had in him with the Toll Road Lease and the way he tried to sneak SB-1 through the legislature.
Here's my bottom line: if all the studies say the Illiana toll road needs and can be built then it should be built as a toll road, built, run and managed by the State of Indiana for the public good. People might be willing to surrender their property for the common good but not to be coerced by the power of the state for the benefit of a private enterprise.
How you go about building the case for great public works is just as important as the project itself.
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