CHICAGO — Indiana’s governor would have sole power to create new toll roads and enter into public-private partnerships for highway projects under a bill already passed by the Senate and expected to be considered by a House subcommittee as early as Wednesday.
SB 473 would allow the governor and the Indiana Department of Transportation to enter into new P3s and convert highways into toll roads without legislative approval.
The authorization would expire in 2015, though the House could extend that four-year window.
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has said that expanding P3s for infrastructure is among his top priorities for 2011. Handing the governor sole negotiating power without having to wait for legislative approval would make projects more attractive to private companies, proponents have said.
The bill comes as Indiana officials eye a handful of expensive infrastructure projects. Among them are a $4.1 billion joint project with Kentucky to build a pair of bridges across the Ohio River that could include private-activity bonds, and a $1 billion toll road between Indiana and Illinois.
Lawmakers last year authorized a pair of bills allowing the governor to negotiate with private companies interested in financing those two projects. The current bill would expand that authority to all projects for the next four years.
Proposed projects would undergo studies and public hearings and the Senate Budget Agency would maintain the ability to review the projects. But lawmakers could not vote on them.
Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, who sponsored the Senate bill, told the Indianapolis Star that the measure would allow private companies to move in quickly without waiting for legislative approval.
The GOP-controlled Senate approved the bill in February with a vote of 37 to 12.
The House Committee on Roads and Transportation could consider the measure as soon as this week. Republicans also control the House.
