Bus advocates still in search of funding source

• Reprints

Bellamy, Calvin

Updated: January 14, 2012 6:41PM

INDIANAPOLIS — Advocates for regional transportation are still strategizing how to gain funding at the Indiana General Assembly to keep buses running. 

A bill giving local gaming tax revenue to the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority is just one idea, RBA lobbyist Calvin Bellamy said on Friday. The bill filed by state Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, requires Hammond, Gary and Lake County to give $750,000 a year and East Chicago $600,000 a year of their gaming dollars to the RBA.

But Bellamy said the bill, which is not scheduled for a committee hearing, would only move forward if all the entities agree to give the money.

“Every unit of local government has financial challenges. What we’re hoping to do is get the three mayors together to come to some kind of consensus,” Bellamy said. “Nothing can move ahead unless all three of them agree.”

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland is concerned about giving gaming dollars to the RBA. Copeland said the city already gives $3.5 million of casino taxes annually to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and sees that as the city’s donation to regional transportation. The RDA provided operational dollars to the RBA through the end of 2011, and the budget to operate the buses runs out at the end of June.

“Until we find a regional approach to buses and a fair and equitable way of paying for it this whole county will suffer,” Copeland said.

Lawson said East Chicago would pay less because it’s a smaller community. The dollar amounts contained in the bill are negotiable, Lawson said. 

“We’re open to any solution because public transportation is so important in an urban area,” Lawson said. “It provides jobs and transportation for folks who don’t have vehicles. It’s cheap, for the most part.”

Whether a funding solution for the RBA will gain ground is difficult to tell, Lawson said.

“This is a very interesting and rare session. They seldom go down like this,” Lawson said, “and so it’s real hard to feel the climate of everything that is going on in here right now other than right to work. That has taken precedence over everything else.”

Lake County Councilman Mike Repay, D-Hammond, said the bill as written would have a significant impact on the county’s finances. Lake County distributes its gaming dollars to a variety of entities and purposes, including repairs to roads and bridges.

“I feel strongly that public transit is an important thing to fund,” Repay said. “We have to strike a balance between what kind of income we get from casinos and what we can contribute to that.”