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A push to bring high-speed passenger rail to the Midwest — including a stop in Fort Wayne — is still moving full-speed ahead, a bit of good news last week in the midst of several troublesome happenings.
Some 800 people — including area, state and national politicians — met for a rally in Fort Wayne Saturday at the Baker Street Train Station to show their support for bringing passenger-train service back to Fort Wayne. Our neighbor to the north is one of the largest U.S. cities that does not have passenger rail service — a great misfortune for Hoosiers and the environment.
Officials from the Northeast Indiana Rail Association organized the standing-room only rally as proponents updated the community on efforts to allow passengers to begin traveling across the Midwest at speeds up to 110 mph in 2017.
The proposed line — which would be funded through federal money — would travel from east to west from Cleveland to Chicago with stops in Toledo and Fort Wayne.
In June 2009, passenger-train officials from across the entire Midwest met in Fort Wayne to discuss what our area needed to do to secure some of the $8 billion President Obama and the federal government have earmarked for rail systems. President Obama wants to strengthen our country’s public transportation system — a vision we ardently support. Europe and Asia have used high-speed rails for quite some time, but the United States is far behind in using this more energy-efficient method that relies much less on oil.
Since then, Indiana has applied for a $2.8 billion grant to get the project started — money that would pay for track and rolling stock to build the route. Officials say the high-speed rail project would bring some 4,500 jobs to Indiana — 500 of which would be in northeast Indiana.
The push to bring high-speed rail here needs all the support it can get, as competition for the $8 billion is fierce. Officials estimated there are $57 billion in project proposals for the $8 billion that is earmarked for passenger rail.
It took years for our nation to develop its interstate highways, and it will likely take as long to put a high-speed rail system into place. Construction would begin in 2014 with high-speed rail open to passengers in 2017 if Indiana receives the money.
The benefits, however, are worth the wait because we do need to develop a better public transportation system in the United States. High-speed rail in Indiana will create more jobs and it will promote a cleaner environment because trains are more energy independent and use less oil. Plus, it will allow us to get to other cities much faster without having to drive or fly.
But like so many other things, a lot of what happens depends on how vocal we are willing to be to promote a high-speed rail system.
You can read more about the plan by going to www.nipra2rail.org/
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We couldn’t end today’s column without dedicating a little space to legislative session now under way.
By the time you read this space, chances are that lawmakers will have passed just today one of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ goals for the short 30-day session.
That priority: a bill that will send voters to the polls in November to decide if they want to put property tax caps into the state constitution. It just so happens Daniels is giving his State of the State speech at 7 tonight, so we have to wonder about the timing of everything. The Democrat-controlled House passed the measure last week, and the Republican-controlled Senate was expected to OK it shortly before Daniels’ speech.
Two years ago, legislators created and Daniels signed a bill capping property taxes in Indiana. Under the legislation, property taxes were limited to 1 percent of a home’s assessed value, 2 percent for rental and farm property, and 3 percent for businesses. Meanwhile, they increased the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent.
The caps will not become permanent until the General Assembly approves a proposed amendment to the constitution twice in consecutive legislatures. Lawmakers OK’d the amendment in 2008 but did not in 2009, which means they must pass it during this session. If not, the process must start over. If legislators pass the bill, then it goes to voters in the November election.
While we have no qualms about the referendum process that lets Hoosiers — not just lawmakers — decide what’s best for the state, the rush to write property tax caps into the state constitution still is not the right action to take.
The tax caps were only fully implemented this month and we have yet to see the true implications on public services. We’re not opposed to the idea, but the logical step to take is to wait a few years to see the intended — and unintended consequences — and then ask Hoosiers if we should include the permanent caps in the constitution.
A recent survey from Ball State University shows that about 64 percent of Hoosiers support the constitutional amendment to cap the state’s property taxes. While the idea might sound like a good idea now, we question what these caps will mean this year now that they have been fully put into place and in the coming years. Local governments and schools in 2010, for example, are expected to see some $450 million less in property tax revenue.
All signs indicate Indiana voters will get to decide in November when they head to the polls, but this born-and bred-Hoosier isn’t ready to say yes quite yet and hopes he is not alone in what seems to be more of a political move than a policy change to do what is best for the state and its residents.
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