State rep pushes back on flood control plan
By Karen Caffarini Post-Tribune correspondent January 28, 2012 8:12PM
Soliday
Updated: March 1, 2012 8:24AM
State Rep. Ed Soliday, D-Valparaiso, is defending his proposed Lake County flood control legislation from local critics, saying their arguments don’t hold water.
House Bill 1264 has passed its second reading in the House and likely will have its third reading Monday. If it passes, it will go to the Senate for a vote.
“This is the typical Lake County argument,” Soliday said of Hobart and Merrillville council members who have lashed out at the bill, which calls for every Lake County resident living within the Little Calumet River and Burns Waterway watersheds to pay a $45-per-year special assessment to operate and maintain levees on the Little Calumet River.
The assessment is aimed to prevent future floods like the one that occurred in 2008, causing major damage to homes and a hospital and shutting down Interstate 94. The assessment also will lower or eliminate flood insurance for residents and businesses within that area.
Agricultural parcels will pay $90 per year and industries $360 per year per parcel.
Hobart Council members balked at their residents paying the assessment when the legislation calls for the money to be spent only within one mile of the west arm of the Little Calumet River and Burns Waterway in Lake and Porter counties, saying Hobart and Lake Station residents have their own flooding issues.
Merrillville’s council asked for a tiered system, saying people living near the river who are getting the most benefit should pay more. Council members also asked why Illinois and Porter County residents aren’t paying a share and why this can be pushed through the Legislature when their appeal for a hotel/motel tax can’t.
Soliday said Hobart has the least to argue about.
“It will be getting $1.6 million a year after the fifth year and its projects will be subsidized by the people on the west side of the county,” he said.
Hobart will receive $4.5 million for a wetland mitigation project, according to a financial analysis of the levee project done by Indianapolis-based firm PolicyAnalytics. Soliday added that the east side eventually will get the same relief the west side of the county is getting.
“The whole plan is to do it in sections,” he said. “We ultimately need to deal with tributaries, but we can’t swallow it all at once. The state will ask, what is the county drainage board doing?”
As for a tiered system, Soliday said they crunched the numbers several ways and Merrillville only came out $1 ahead if the fees were raised 50 percent for those living by the river.
He pointed out that people to the east in Lake County built driveways and houses that contributed to the flooding issue to the west.
He said Porter County doesn’t contribute as much to the flooding because its soil is different and the area isn’t as concentrated as in Lake County.
The bill also calls for the Little Calumet River Basin Commission to go from five members to nine and for the Regional Development Authority to be repaid a $6 million loan.
Soliday said it never was suggested the RDA get involved with drainage issues, adding if it doesn’t get paid back it most likely will never loan another nickel for drainage problems.
Hobart Council President Dave Vinzant, D-4th, who is running for state Sen. Earline Rogers’ seat, said he has read the bill and doesn’t see any money in it for Hobart. He said he talked to Soliday about the PolicyAnalytics study that included future plans for Hobart, but they are not part of the bill.
Merrillville Council President Shawn Pettit, D-6th, said he has no problem with the special assessment itself, but he does have a problem with the fact that the state Legislature can push this fee through when it won’t approve fiscal home rule so the town can impose a hotel/motel tax.
“Each community is saying, ‘If you just give me this, it will be OK.’ But they aren’t considering the consequences,” Soliday said.
He said he gives the bill an 80 percent chance of passing, adding that could be lowered significantly with the negative publicity.
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