From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Gov. Mitch Daniels declined to take a position Thursday on whether the state should continue paying $10 million a year beyond 2015 to support the work of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
"There was no promise that it would be a permanent program," Daniels said. "It was meant to try to give a big boost to the region and maybe to create a little bit of cooperation across the region that hadn't been there."
The Republican governor signed the law establishing the RDA in 2005, Daniels' first year in office.
Since then, the RDA has created five lakefront parks, expanded the Gary/Chicago International Airport, purchased new South Shore rail cars and sponsored numerous region economic development programs.
"It gave Northwest Indiana an asset it never would have had otherwise and I think they've used it pretty wisely," Daniels said. "I'd like to see it go on, but it kind of depends on, in large part, on how much folks in the region want that."
The majority of the $27.5 million annual RDA budget comes from the $3.5 million each paid by Lake County, Porter County, Hammond, Gary and East Chicago.
Since 2006, the RDA also has received $10 million a year from the state as part of the $3.9 billion Indiana got for leasing the Toll Road to a private operator. Those funds run out at the end of the 2015 budget year.
RDA President Bill Hanna recently began meeting with legislators trying to ensure state funding continues beyond 2015.
But state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Hanna last week he'll likely block future state RDA funding unless Lake County enacts an income tax. Lake is the only Indiana county without a local income tax.
"Northwest Indiana is one of the most fertile opportunities for economic development in our state," Kenley said. "Lake County's willingness to participate in paying for the cost of economic development initiatives will weigh in its favor when future state funding decisions are made."
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/daniels-mum-on-rda-funding-threat/article_6e5cb602-fa2a-53a5-8c3b-ac4b9ba673e2.html
