Good turnout for legislative breakfast
Cathy May - Contributing Writer

The Major Moves plan was a hot topic at the Ripley County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Breakfast held Monday, March 6. Three of Ripley County's State Legislatures, Johnny Nugent, Cleo Duncan and Billy Bright answered questions from the 67 attendees.

According to Representative Cleo Duncan, the Major Moves plan allows Statewide Mobility Partners, a consortium of Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia and Cintra Concessions de Infrastructures de Transporte of Spain, to operate and manage Indiana Toll Roads. The state lost 12 million dollars on the 157 miles of toll roads last year.

The company will give the state 3.85 billion dollars up front and put 4.4 billion into repairing the road. Each county should receive $700,000 over the next two years. The company is supposed to add 100,000 jobs for Indiana. In addition, a five-million dollar Indiana State Police Post will be built on the toll road and the company has agreed to pay for 25 additional state troopers. The road would be leased to the company for 75 years.

Representative Bright stated, "The government can't run a business. We are going to do something and the time is now." The Major Moves plan was introduced by Governor Mitch Daniels and has already passed the House by a 52-47 vote.

There were several concerns and questions raised about the plan from attendees. Business owner, Chuck Stratis, said, "Infrastructure should belong to the people. We saw what a problem the long lease was at the Batesville license branch. Can't we table the issue and investigate it more?"

The reason the plan was introduced is to compensate on the money the Federal Government is cutting from the State's budget in July. Representative Duncan said the State would barely have enough to patch the roads.

The issue of property taxes was also raised. Edgar Lee Swinney, a Ripley County farmer, said the property assessment on farm land was reduced from 1,050 to 880 per acre, but then the rate went up. Senator Nugent said, "If all property tax were eliminated, the State income tax or the State sales tax would have to go up by 13%." Bright added, "Government is too big and spends too much money. The property tax system is very unfair and horribly broken. The answer to long term property tax relief is less government."

All three representatives who spoke belong to the Republican Party. Bill Bischoff, the only other representative from Ripley County and a Democrat, was invited to the breakfast but was unable to attend.