With this year’s General Assembly session expected to end this week, legislative leaders are putting final touches on a road funding plan.
Here are the top five things you need to know as negotiations come to a close:
- The amount of funding for local roads is a key difference between the House and Senate plans, with the House providing double the funding for cities, towns and counties compared to the Senate version. The House plan comes closer to meeting the local need of $775 million a year as detailed in an independent study by Purdue University. The Senate version provides more limited funding that Aim believes would only maintain current road conditions.
- What’s at stake? As Aim CEO Matt Greller told RTV6 last week: “Every day, more and more roads enter into a state of disrepair. We want to stop that trend.” Even more so, Greller said lawmakers not adopting a long-term funding plan risks “a loss of quality of life, a loss of talent and attraction”
- The end deal could see the resurfacing of ideas the Senate originally opposed, including shifting more of the sales tax on gas to road funding. The approach touted by the House could open the door to additional funding for local roads. House Speaker Brian Bosma told IndyStar his caucus would propose phase-in options. “It has been our top priority for at least four years, five I guess, and we’ve made some progress in that regard,” Bosma told IndyStar. “I would like to at least get a commitment to complete the process.”
- House Bill 1002 is expected to be among the last bills finalized by lawmakers. This year’s session, where the General Assembly also is writing a new, two-year budget, could conclude as early as Friday.
- If a deal ultimately passes, the funding plan would then head to Gov. Eric Holcomb for action. Holcomb has said the only thing not on the table in terms of road funding is doing nothing.
The time is now to contact your lawmaker to express your support for a comprehensive road-funding plan. Find contact information here.