Indiana

Major Mistake?

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Although I understand the need to create jobs in Indiana, I am totally confused at a move by Democratic State Representative Terri Austin to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from the Department of Transportation to cities and towns to pay for local road projects.

By a vote of 7-5, the House Transportation and Roads Committee passed HB 1656, which would not only take money from INDOT for local roads, but also from the Toll Road and give the legislature full authority on how to spend any federal economic stimulus dollars.

Austin and House Democrats say these moves are necessary to create jobs.  All this is really creating is a bunch of unnecessary grief and hassle.

INDOT Commissioner Karl Browning, who missed a funeral of an INDOT worker to attend the hearing, told the committee that there was no way the bill was going to “see the light of day.”  And a number of interest groups have said the legislation would only hurt the economy.

I don’t see how taking money from the state road fund and giving it to local governments is really going to fix anything because all you are doing is robbing Peter and writing a bad check to Paul.   Austin admitted there were problems with the bill and they would be fixed later.

Here’s a thought,  how about we not do this and then we can say we didn’t.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).